The Intent to Live
by intata
Summary: "Taichi Yamanaka. That's my new name." See what the addition of another Yamanaka will do to the timeline. Will he screw everything up? Probably. Semi-SI OC fic. 'M' for bits of violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Naruto.

 **This has been re-written (sort of) as I've gotten slightly better at writing, and wanted to edit some of my earlier chapters. This is basically a few added details, and sprucing up the whole of it.**

 **The story picks up around chapter 7. I've been told that the first few chapters don't really _grab_ the reader, so just stick with it for a bit. The chapters aren't too long.**

So this is a semi-SI OC fic. This is my first thing on this website, but I've read a good bit of what's been posted here and I wanted to try my hand at it. This story has been influenced by a huge number of writers on this site (one of the largest being _Dreaming of Sunshine_ by Silver Queen), so I apologize if I accidentally steal anything from your stories. I'll try to cite where I get ideas if I realize that what I'm writing isn't an original thought. So please let me know if it happens and I'll either take it down, or include a line like, "This is from BlaBla's story ' _StoryName'_ and I liked this idea enough to use it here, and guess what? BlaBla thought it was awesome that I liked it so much and was happy to let me use it!"

Now at the same time, a good bit of this story is original thought. So please don't assume that everything was taken from something else. Some of my ideas might overlap with other writers, and it is very possible that it could be a coincidence.

 **Please do not read if:**

1\. You are uncomfortable with blood and gore. I promise nothing about holding my imagination back.

2\. You are expecting tons of romance. As far as I've thought ahead, there might be a few pairings, but they are by no means major plot points. There will be no harem. I mean jeez, most of this story will take place when the characters are children. Cooties were a real thing back then.

3\. You have a problem with certain four-letter words. I will try to make parts of this story fit a war-torn theme. People do not usually care about the chosen vernacular of another in the midst of battle. Also the main character might not be able to hold some of it in.

I don't need a new asshole, so please don't rip me a new one. It works just fine, thank you. I will gladly accept **constructive** criticism, however. I'm not dumb enough to think that I'm awesome at this yet, so if you don't like how I'm writing this and can't be bothered to help, please just stop reading.

Please review. I would also greatly appreciate ideas, so if you have an idea and want me to implement it, I make no promises, but it might influence what I put down here. And of course I will give you credit in an author's note.

Oh and I suck at making up names for OCs. So if you want to help with that, it would be appreciated.

Anyway, enjoy.

* * *

So my life had been pretty boring.

I had a good job, close-ish family, and no notable enemies. I've never broken a bone in my body, never been arrested - shit, I've never even gotten a speeding ticket. I've gotten a couple parking tickets, but… who's counting those?

I think I did a pretty good job at being normal, so I'm not entirely sure why I ended up in Hell.

Hold on, I'll back up:

My name is Alex, or that _used to be_ my name. Anyway, as I said before; I've lead a pretty normal life. I'm a pretty simple guy with no real motivation, so I just slide through life. Granted I've had my troubles. I wasn't some kid who had everything handed to him on a silver platter, but I wasn't wanting for much either. I did my best to be independent; supporting myself whenever I could to take some of the load off my parents.

My story starts around six in the afternoon on a colder than usual day in the city. It stopped snowing about twenty minutes before I walked out of the store, but a thick fog still hugged the ground. All of that together basically meant that visibility wasn't that great.

When I said that it was snowing, it was more like an ugly sleet - you know, the kind that sticks to your jacket and no matter what you do, you can't warm up.

I'm not sure why I was waiting outside, instead of inside where it was warm, but I found myself looking at one of those fancy street lights. It was one of the ones that used actual fire to light up the area, and looked kind of like a Victorian era lamp. Though now it was covered with ice to the point where the fire-light coming from it fractured and flickered like an optical illusion on the fog.

"What are you staring at?"

I turned around to see a cute, long-haired brunette wearing a grey beanie, thick purple scarf, and a peacoat. She was bobbing up and down, rubbing her purple mittened hands together in an attempt to warm up.

"Eh, nothing in particular."

The girl 'hm'ed. "Well come on. I still need to get a present for my sister."

"Come on, Emily." I sighed. "I thought you got something for her at the last place?"

"Yeah, but that was small." She puffed out her cheeks adorably.

I smiled down at her. Behold, my weak point: cuteness. "Alright alright, but you owe me coffee or something. I'm the one who has to drive in this crap."

She beamed at me. "Deal."

We started walking down the street, as if some cue was given to begin our journey.

We didn't get too far.

The screech of tires never came. It was too icy out to actually have contact with the road, apparently.

Emily didn't seem to notice. I was walking just slightly behind her as she bounced around on the sidewalk. She was the type of girl that _absolutely loved_ to shop.

She gave out a little squeak as I grabbed the back of her collar and yanked her backwards in a feat of strength that neither of us really expected. She landed on the ground about a yard behind me.

I only registered that the vehicle coming for us was one of those smaller box-trucks as it clipped the lamppost that I was examining earlier and smashed into the store next to us, right through the spot that Emily had been standing in.

The truck started to tip over immediately. I tried to get out of the way, but my foot caught a patch of ice. Half a second later, I found myself facing the foggy sky and forced to watch as the truck crushed my legs beneath its weight.

It didn't even bounce.

It was then that I heard the creaking of metal - the tell-tale sound that meant 'Get the fuck out of the way.' I looked over to see the lamppost crashing down.

Towards me.

I knew I was in shock as I couldn't feel the glass from the lamp shatter around my right arm, leaking out whatever flammable liquid was inside and shredding my jacket with the broken glass. I couldn't feel it.

Yet.

The fire licked at my jacket as the surrounding snow and ice melted. I could vaguely see blood seeping from the glass shards around my arm.

"Alex!" I heard Emily scream. Then I could only think about how that probably hurt when I pulled on her coat like that. I imagine that she couldn't breath for a couple seconds.

What would her reaction have been if I did that for no reason?

What would her reaction have been if I wasn't on fire?

Irrelevant thought, I know, but it still interested me, even as the fire crawled over my torso.

"Alex!" She started to shovel some of the snow onto me. Probably in an attempt to put out the fire, but there was a flammable liquid that had soaked through my clothes at this point.

She probably would have dumped me if I'd done that for no reason.

It was starting to get pretty hot. I knew my brain simply wasn't _letting_ me experience the myriad of sensations that I _should_ have been feeling, but a dull ache in my legs _did_ begin to make itself known, and the world also started to heat up exponentially.

I looked over to Emily, who had her hands covering her mouth, crying and staring at me. With the fire, still spreading, she simply couldn't get close to me. That was fine. It was getting pretty toasty, anyway.

I reached out with my left arm; my only limb that wasn't pinned under _something._ I giggled to myself at the thought.

"E-ly." I choked out. I blinked. Why couldn't I talk? The fire shouldn't have- Oh. Part of the lamppost had impaled my chest. Why didn't I notice that before?

I looked back at Emily. All I wanted to do was tell her where I hid her Christmas present.

If I couldn't do that, I'd do the only thing I could.

I smiled at her.

Then, strangely, with the flames blazing upon my body… I felt…

Cold.

* * *

I wish I could tell you that what happens after death is interesting, but it's not. It's just dark. You close your eyes for that last time, and it's like going to sleep. The pain slips away and you're left with a sort of half-consciousness; a dream state of some kind. I couldn't really freak out about the fact that I was probably dead, but I _could_ think about it. I could analyze it and come to terms with it all. My emotions seemed to die with my body.

I just floated in nothingness.

Time didn't feel fluid in the darkness. It felt like it does when you're sick and you keep falling asleep. You have the feeling that time is passing, but you have no real concept of keeping track of it. It could have been days, months, or even years until I heard the voices.

They were muffled, but definitely people's voices. I could also make out a steady beat that seemed to reverberate in my surroundings. I likened it to being inside a base drum as the drummer lightly tapped on the pedal. I could also feel a sort of warm tingling sensation starting from my stomach and slowly spreading through my limbs as I passed in and out of consciousness. It burned at first, but soon that tingling sensation brought a comforting warmth with it.

Later, I was still in that state of mind where time didn't make much sense, but I was becoming more aware of my surroundings. I still didn't have any real control over my body, and none of my five major senses were working right. I mean I mentioned the constant muffled sounds, and I could sort-of feel things to the point that I knew I was encased in a bag of wetness, but that was it, really.

I didn't have the mental capacity to realize that I had a horrible case of claustrophobia, so being in a bag of wetness didn't bother me as much as it totally should have.

At some point along the line I started to feel a squeezing sensation over my whole body. My emotions and various sensory organs seemed to be coming back in full swing by this point, so naturally I began freaking out. Something was changing and I had no clue what was happening. I could hear faint beeping, and all the sounds and voices were picking up, then a bright light flashed through my eyelids, cold air brushed my skin, and the noise level skyrocketed.

It was sensory overload, and all I could do was scream.

Then some asshole spanked me.

* * *

It took me all of a day to realize that I was a baby. That seems kind of slow, but my vision wasn't in full working order, and my hearing and touch weren't helping much. I did stop screaming pretty fast though. I had the mind of a twenty two year old, and I was finally able to start using it. Well some of it anyway, but it was increasing by the day. The brain of an infant is incredibly limited.

Stupid natural biological processes.

Anyway, I couldn't understand a damn word that anyone was saying. In my old life, I lived on the east coast of the U.S. and English was my primary language. I'd tried to learn a few others, namely French, Italian, and even a bit of ancient Greek, but that didn't help me at all with Japanese.

Yep. Japanese.

The only way I could tell that this was Japanese was because I was a bit of an anime geek, so I picked up on the way the language sounded.

In the end, that helped me out tremendously, not the language thing; the anime thing. Well the language thing too, but not as much as the anime thing.

I couldn't catch most of the conversations that bounced around me, but I could understand a few of the words: namely "Shinobi," and "Konoha." I wasn't necessarily the _biggest_ fan of the Naruto series, but I followed it regularly, read the whole manga, and even some fanfiction. So when my new mom took me outside into the village and I saw a giant mountain with four faces on it, I started to freak out. Was this a dream? Some elaborate, imagined fantasy?

I pinched myself, shook my head, slapped myself a few times. Nada. Still here.

This was going to suck. I was probably going to die younger than I had been last time around.

That thought was solidified about a week later when a sort of pressure broke down on me when I was sleeping. I woke up instantly but I couldn't move at all. The very air had a reddish tinge to it, and I could taste the anger and hate that permeated everything. The only thing I knew at that point was that I was going to die. Again.

But then it stopped. The world went back to normal, and I found I could breath normally again.

My dad was out in the village doing errands, but my mom was home, and I found that she was holding me in her arms. I wasn't sure when she'd picked me up, but she was crying and soothing me - even though I wasn't crying - obviously scared out of her wits.

Oh fuck, Dad was out doing errands.

And that was totally the Kyuubi.

* * *

"Taichi! Dinner!" My mom yelled out from the kitchen.

"Coming!" My two-year-old self yelled back.

Ok, by all standards, I was a ridiculous kid. My first word was "Kaa-san" at four months old. I was walking by six months, and I had a working knowledge of the language by 14 months. That's a working knowledge. Not fluency. I could get basic ideas across, but that was about it. It wasn't until about now; at two-and-a-half, that I could speak relatively fluently. I'd never been good at learning languages, and the baby brain thing that helped out with learning a language didn't help much for me. I figured that was because I had prior experience with English.

I'd managed to get my hands on a few kids books early on to help with the written aspect, and mom would take me through each of them, pointing out what each little squiggly meant. Now, I was reading novels and such. I was learning. Not as fast as I wanted to, but I was learning.

I - understandably - felt restricted going from adult to toddler. I couldn't go anywhere myself, couldn't have intelligent conversation with _anyone,_ and everyone treated me as if I was some type of clinical patient.

The first thing I did when I stood up for the first time was take a shit in the toilet. That was my whole motivator. Shitting myself for six months was horrible. I did fall in, though. That seat is not meant for toddlers.

I looked up at my mom as I slid into the kitchen. Tomo Yamanaka. Slim build, vibrant red hair, and a burning temper. Do _not_ cross Tomo Yamanaka. She was the same age I was when I died: twenty-two, and absolutely gorgeous. She never bothered with makeup, kept her long-ish hair in a loose braid over her left shoulder, and dressed for comfort, rather than appearance. Even so, she was the most beautiful woman in the village. Though that might be bias. She _was_ my mom after all.

My name is Taichi Yamanaka, and yes, I am part of Ino's family. Ichi Yamanaka, my father was Inoichi's brother, so that made me Ino's cousin. We're about the same age, too, which was fortunate, because there are decidedly few children in the clans, which are pretty much the only people I've interacted with. Nearly all of my 'playdates' have been with Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji.

To be honest, Shikamaru was the only one I could tolerate of the three. I think it was because he's too lazy to annoy me with normal baby stuff.

Anyway, I like to think that I'm a pretty chill kid. I have bright red hair, like my mom, but the turquoise eyes of the Yamanaka clan. I never held my intelligence back, mainly because I couldn't be bothered to hide it. That might seem like a bad idea with people like Danzo around, but I wasn't afraid of him getting his hands on me. I had a metric shit-ton of interaction with three clan heads, all of which I made sure noticed, and liked me, so I was pretty confident that Danzo wouldn't be able to get away with a kidnapping.

I was labeled as a genius early on, but just about anyone would if they were stuck in the body of a baby. So that's not really an accomplishment. Really I just wanted my independence back.

"What's for dinner?" I asked, putting my book on the table.

"Chicken curry. What were you doing outside?" My mom asked as she ploped some rice onto two plates.

"Reading. Curry again? Mo~om," I whined, "we have curry like, every night!"

"Not _every_ night! And why shouldn't we? It's delicious!" she said, pouting.

"You're telling me you don't get tired of it? We can't possibly get all our nutrients from only curry!"

"Nutrients? You're two. How do you even know what those are?" She looked at me incredulously while putting the plates on the table.

"I'm smart!" I said proudly with my hands on my hips.

She cooed, swoops down, picks me up and spins around, "Yeah you are! My little genius!"

"Mom sto~op! I'm getting dizzy!"

She laughed, "Sorry honey," she said, putting me down, "What were you reading anyway?"

My heart skipped a beat, "Um…" Shit.

She looked at the book on the table and froze.

"Taichi."

"Yeah?"

"Where did you get this?" Her face was blank. No expression. Holding up the book for me to see.

"Um…" Nope. Definitely can't say that I grabbed it when Nara-sama dropped it after one of the playdates. I knew for a fact that the book hadn't been released yet, so I wasn't too sure how he got his hands on it. Well, whatever.

"Taichi." Barely controlled rage.

"What's wrong with it?" Innocence. That's how I get out of this.

"Nothing sweetie, this just isn't something you should be reading. Ever."

"Oh." I shrunk in on myself. Well yeah, she was right. I didn't think that counted for me though. It _was_ a surprisingly good book.

"Taichi."

"Yeah?"

"Where did you get this?"

"I…" Oh mischievous side, I found you. I conjured a confused expression. "An old guy with big white hair," I stretched my arms to portray the size of it all, "gave it to me a couple days ago. Said, 'It's signed and everything, kid' and told me to hold onto it because it would be worth something later." Oh yeah. I pulled that right out of my ass.

"Jiraya!" My mom screamed. All but broke the windows. Holy Hell, mom. Then she started talking to herself, "Icha Icha is not a goddamn children's book, you twit! When I get my hands on you, I will break you-" and now she's out of the kitchen.

Bullet dodged.

 **A/N**

Well that's the first chapter re-done. I'm sporadically going through and editing these, so I apologize for any inconsistencies you might see. Let me know, and I'll fix it.

 **Please review!** Even if you hate it. I'd like to know why.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**

Ok, wow. A number of you guys just straight-up favorited this thing. Holy crap. Not sure if you all just said, "Welp, has potential" then used the 'Favorite' button instead of the 'Follow' button, but whatever! That just means I have more of a reason to write, and improve. So thanks for the interest!

My updates are probably not going to be this quick on a regular basis, but since I'm keeping the chapters kind of short, I should be able to update somewhat quickly comparatively.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.**

Please **do not** shove insults up my ass.

 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

 **Previously**

 _"I…" Oh mischievous side, I found you. I conjured a confused expression "An old guy with big white hair," I stretched my arms to portray the size of it all, "gave it to me a couple days ago. Said, 'It's signed and everything, kid' and told me to hold onto it because it would be worth something later." Oh yeah. I pulled that right out of my ass._

 _"Jiraya!" My mom screamed. All but broke the windows. Holy Hell, mom. Then she started talking to herself, "Icha Icha is not a goddamn children's book, you twit! When I get my hands on you, I will break you-" and now she's out of the kitchen._

 _Bullet dodged._

* * *

…Wait.

That shouldn't have worked that well. You don't just call someone like _Jiraya_ a _twit._ That's not a sane thing to do. At all. I mean she didn't do it to his face, but still. Also, she knew who I was talking about immediately, then proceeded to rant. None of what I just said should have worked.

This hints at familiarity between my mother, and one of the _Sanin._

"Kaa-san?" I walked up to her later that night while she's doing the dishes.

She looked over, "Hold on a minute." I nodded.

She finished up, then started to wipe her hands dry, "What's up sweetie?"

Let's just dive in, shall we? "Who's Jiraya?"

Mom opened her mouth. I could see a word forming inside, but it was lost when she clamped her mouth shut, blushing. I guess she realized that she was just cursing someone's very existence. Right in front of her son.

"Kaa-san?" I said after a minute of silence.

She started, "Oh, sorry sweetie. Jiraya's just an old pervert. Best not to associate with him." Volume dipping down slightly.

"Oh." I said simply, knowing that she's about to rant.

Then in a mumble, as she walked away, "He's supposed to represent the village as one of the Sanin; supposed to be respectful, and put up a strong front! But what does he do? He writes these damn smut books, and-"

"Sanin?" I cut her off.

"Huh?"

"You said he was something called a Sanin?"

"Oh, well…" she sighed, "Yeah, he's one of the strongest ninja of Konoha. They had to make up a new rank for his team because they were so strong."

"Wow," I said in false awe, I already knew this. "That's so cool! You sure know a lot about him."

"Of course I do!" She beamed, hands on her hips, "He's a friend of mine," then added in mumble, "though now I use the term 'friend' loosely. Smut is _not_ for children!"

"You're friends with a famous person?!" I was only a _bit_ blown away that she was on a first name basis with _Jiraya._

She looked down at me, as if she _just now_ realized that she could brag about this. "Not only that! He's the one who sought _me_ out in the beginning!" Oh, she's smug now.

"What?! Why?"

"Don't sound so surprised." She pouted.

"Kaa-sa~an!"

"Oh, alright!" She grinned at me before explaining, "Your Kaa-san is pretty good at certain things, and a lot of important people know it, too! So when Jiraya heard about my epicness, he just _had_ to talk to me!" She was expecting me to bow down to her awesomeness.

And I was about to. I mean _holy shit._ She was a consultant for one of the _Sanin!_

"What'd you talk to him about?" I asked warily, hoping it wasn't a curry recipe.

She grinned, "Want me to show you?"

"Yeah!"

She lead me over to a desk in the living room. I gave the desk a suspicious look. I've never seen her use it for anything. It was just one of those things that sat in the corner of the room. It's been there forever, so you just stop thinking about it. The anticipation had me going through option after option of how the desk would transform into a crazy weapon or something.

That was all proven wrong when she opened up a drawer and pulled out a few sheets of paper, a scroll, and a brush.

"It's a bit early to start you on this, but I think you're mature enough. Can't use chakra yet, but we should at least start you on the drawing part." She pat the pile of paper, "So Taichi, what do you know about seals?"

Holy shit.

"Seals?"

She grinned, "Well you're in for a treat, aren't you?" She grabs the scroll, and starts to unroll it, stopping once a weird collection of squiggly lines is revealed. "This is a basic, Uzumaki locking seal."

Fucking _back up._ What?! Did she say _Uzumaki_?

I looked up at my mom and her… bright… red… hair.

Well.

She reached over and grabbed the brush and a slip of paper, then started to make an exact copy of the seal in the scroll. Wait, where did the ink come from?

"So you take this and slap it on something that opens, then it won't open anymore." She explained simply.

"Bullshit." I almost slap myself in the face trying to stop that word from coming out my mouth.

"Taichi!"

"Sorry…" I looked down at the ground.

She sighed, "Seriously, where do you learn these things." She walked over to the door separating the kitchen from the living room and closed it. We live in a semi traditional Japanese house, so all of the inner doors are sliding, and don't have locks, except the bathroom.

"The seal works by putting chakra into the ink as you draw it out. Then to activate it, you flash the ink with chakra a second time." She slapped the paper on the door and the seal put off a dull blue glow before returning to normal. "Try to open the door."

No. This doesn't make any sense. I walked over to the door and just stared at the seal and the spot where the door met the wall.

"Any time now, Tai."

I blinked at her and turned back to the door. I slowly moved my hand to the handle and tried to slide it open. It didn't move. At all. The fuck? What? How? Wait, maybe the seal just anchors the object in place, making it impossible to move, thereby preventing it from allowing entry. Could I test that?

I hurried over to the bookshelf that was by the desk and grabbed a random book. "Kaa-san, can you make another one of those?"

She blinked at me, smiling but curious, "Yeah, sure thing." and walked back to the desk, whipped out another with the brush and _no ink._ Where was the damn ink coming from?

"On the book?" I nodded, and put the book on the desk. Then she slapped the tag on with the same faint blue pulse as before.

OK. Moment of truth. I went to pick up the book. I had no trouble doing so. Well that was one theory squashed. I could move the book, which meant that the object wasn't anchored in place… But could I open the book? I hold it via the spine, and tried to pry it open with my free hand.

No dice.

I could do nothing but stare at it; incredulous.

"Well?" Mom asks, "What do you think?"

There's only one thing I _could_ think.

"Bullshit ninja magic."

* * *

The Yamanaka clan lived in a cluster of homes and buildings just off the center of Konoha along with the Nara and Akimichi clan compounds. Being as close-knit as the three clans were, I had a _lot_ of interaction with Shikamaru and Choji, let alone Ino, who wouldn't _ever_ leave me alone.

Now in my previous life, letting a two-year-old run around outside for a long period of time unattended was a complete taboo. Here, almost as soon as they could walk, kids were encouraged to be adventurous, climb trees, play ninja, and basically just entertain themselves for hours on end, with just the expectation that they be back for dinner.

It was awesome for me, because I wasn't as coddled as a two-year-old back in my old world would have been. But it was also terrible for me because I had Ino annoying me all the damn time.

Now I should probably mention that I don't like kids, but I'm amazing with them. They annoy me to hell, but they love me. It's after a certain point in the growing process where they don't yell or cry as much that I start to like them. Ino had just started to grow out of it: both of us being almost four now.

"Taichi!" a little blond missile tackled me from my spot under a tree and we rolled a few feet away.

"Hey Ino." I stayed sprawled on the ground channeling my inner Shikamaru; not wanting to deal with this.

"Come o~on! Get up! Let's go play ninja!"

I groaned and heard laughter across the clearing.

Looking up I saw Inoichi coming down the front steps of his house. The Yamanaka compound is made up of a couple hundred houses that are split up into circles around seven clearings, so that every house looks into a field of grass, flowers, and the odd tree. It's not the most efficient use of space, but it helps to foster community interaction. I think. Okay, I'm not sure why they put it together that way, but it looks cool.

The anime didn't touch on just how _much_ the Yamanaka clan focused on inter-clan relationships. I am horrible with names, but within the span of a month, I knew every god damned person in the compound. That's a month after I was _born._ I couldn't even talk yet. Everybody interacted with _everybody._ There was no rule about it either. They were all just friendly people. Very friendly - _nosey -_ people.

The career shinobi were the only exception, which was a surprisingly small fraction of the clan - about twenty percent. On the whole, they still made an effort to interact, but they were much more distant. When I asked Inoichi about it he only vaguely said something about the clan jutsu and that it can ruin how you see people. I assumed it has something to do with the fact that you can literally get into someone's head. Get into the mind of one person that's just the right kind of fucked up, and I can see why they would push people away.

The civilian parts of the clan were mainly outside of the village. They ran some of the farms and such that kept the village in working order. So really, most of the people I interacted with were either administrative, mercantile, or combative.

Even still, we had a clan-wide festival every month where anyone in the clan that could make it - be it civilian, farmer, merchant, whatever - would come into the compound and camp out for a few days and party.

It was glorious.

Hot _damn_ the Yamanaka can party.

"Are you sure you're not a Nara, Taichi?" Inoichi walked a bit closer, peering around his daughter to see me sprawled on the ground.

I didn't even bother to look up at him.

"No."

That only set him off laughing again.

"Ta~aichi! Come o~on! Akira and Kaiya are only here for the festival!" Ino pulling my arm, dragging me a few inches across the grass.

I groaned again. "Alright, alright." I sat up and wiped some grass off of my pants. "Hey uncle Inoichi, since you're here, when are we going to start clan training?"

He blinked. "Oh? You decided you want to be a shinobi?"

I gave him a flat look. "At this point, I'm pretty sure you've just been ignoring me for the past four years." I sighed. "Yes, I want to be a Shinobi. Only been saying that since I could speak."

"Me too! I wanna be a ninja!" Ino bounced.

He raised his hands placatingly. "Okay okay, how about we start on Ino's birthday? She's only a few weeks younger than you, Taichi, and I wanted to teach you both together."

I shrugged, "Works for me."

"Yay! I'm gonna be a ninja!" Ino tackled her dad, who laughed and spun her around.

I sighed, "So Akira and Kaiya are finally here?" Those were the only other kids our age in the entire Yamanaka clan, but they were both part of our farming community, so we didn't get to see them too often.

Inoichi put his daughter down so she could freak out properly, "Yeah! Come-on _come-on_ Let's _go!"_ She ran over, grabbed my arm and pulled me in the direction of the party, making me skid on the grass a bit more.

* * *

 **A/N:**

Second chapter has been edited slightly. Fixed some annoying tense problems, and a couple ways that things were worded. No big changes on this one.

I did absolutely zero research into when people were born (If that information is even there). So I'm just going to say this is a bit AU. Their parents had sex a few days later/earlier in my story. Sue me. I will probably not include dates at all, just general time frames, like "Two weeks after so-and-so."

 **Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**

This Chapter has been re-worked & edited. Nothing much has been added, but it reads better now.

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

"So what do you two know about the clan jutsu?" Ino and I met Inoichi by my usual tree.

Ino threw up her hand and waved it around.

"Yes, Ino?" Inoichi smirked at the display.

"We go into the bad guys' heads!"

"Well yes… I guess that _is_ the long-and-short of it." He looked over to me, "Anything to add, Taichi?" The Yamanaka clan doesn't use honorifics internally. I tried a few times, but it just felt weird. It was like calling your dad by his first name. It didn't feel right.

"Not really." I pouted. "Nobody will tell me anything about it."

Inoichi laughed. "Well that's to be expected," I was expecting him to elaborate, but he just moved on, the jerk. "The clan Jutsu are a collection of abilities that let us enter, control, or communicate with other people's minds, and are arguably some of the most dangerous techniques in the elemental nations."

Ino and I both perked up at this.

He nodded at the extra attention. "It's even possible to take down a Kage with our clan technique - if done right. Almost no one can resist it." His eyes harden slightly, "However there are downsides; one of which is that there _are_ some people who can resist it. I, personally, haven't met anyone who could, but there are records." He said, waving a hand dismissively. "Another is that it's easy to miss our target, and if that happens, we become pretty useless on the field."

"Then I just won't miss!" proclaimed Ino, proudly.

Inoichi laughed and ruffled Ino's hair, "It might be a little harder than that, sweetheart."

I grumbled slightly.

"Well what are we waiting for?! If I can control people, I can get Shika to stop being so lazy!" she yelled. Her skin could barely keep her excitement in.

"Hold your horses, Ino. There are still some stuff we have to cover before you even _begin_ to learn the basics." he looked at us both seriously, "The first being that we can't use most of our jutsu on anyone in the village, civilian, or shinobi, without a good reason. So using it on Shikamaru to make him get up and play ninja is _not_ acceptable." He focused a glare on Ino for the last sentence.

Inoichi continued to list off rules for the jutsu's use, some of what the village required of us if we know the jutsu, etc. That one hit me pretty hard. I never realized how much responsibility the Yamanaka had in the show. Just knowing these jutsu meant that you were trusted implicitly by the village. What you said was taken as truth, and you automatically had the security clearance for A-rank secrets, and were trusted enough to carry an S-rank secret or two if you came across it.

Why?

It's pretty simple really: You can get into people's heads.

Anything they know, you can find out, so the training to use the jutsu makes you go through conditioning first. Sort of a hypnotized _need_ to protect the Leaf. It's not that simple, or _Danzo sounding_ , but it sums it up nicely. Basically it takes years of training and conditioning for someone to be trusted with the clan jutsu. Then, when the clan head deems them trustworthy enough, they begin to train with the jutsu.

So in the show, by the time the Chunin exams came around, Ino was as trusted with village secrets as her father was. She probably knew about Naruto's parentage, and fury friend _way_ before the others figured it out. That was besides the fact that I was pretty sure Shikamaru figured out everything relating to Naruto while they were still in the Academy.

The kid was smart.

Most Yamanaka go through the training, only to find they fit another area better, and the clan jutsu doesn't really work for them, or the trainer isn't convinced that they're trustworthy enough. It's surprising how many people are prone to getting drunk after a mission and blabbing about everything. So it's usually only three to four people in a generation that learn the higher level techniques at all.

"So who wants a taste of the first Jutsu?" Inoichi asked.

Ino looked kind of scared… or was that embarrassment? "I don't really want anyone in my head…" she mumbled.

Oh shit. That's a good point. Why the _fuck_ didn't I think about that before?

"Well this is the first step in the training, so you know what the end product is like."

So a mindwalk is _required?_ Shit. Shitshitshitshit.

"Don't worry, I won't sift through anything that's in there, I just want to get the feeling across." I freak out slightly less than I was before.

"Promise?" Ino seemed hopeful now.

Inoichi smiled lovingly at his daughter and nodded.

"Okay…" Ino nodded.

"Great!" Inoichi wasted no more time and did a weird hand sign and slumped over slightly. Ino did the same. Surprisingly, nobody collapsed onto the floor.

Fucking shit I hope that he doesn't actually sift through anything on my turn. If I just get up and run, he'll be super suspicious.

I sat there debating with myself for a good two minutes, and before I could come up with a decision, they both came-to.

Inoichi reached over to pat Ino on the head with a smile, who looked relieved and happy.

"You're up Taichi." Inoichi said, carrying over the smile from his daughter to me.

I sighed, but before I could say anything the world went black.

* * *

I opened my eyes, and was greeted by the most beautiful room I'd ever seen. It seemed to be a classic throne room. My biggest hint for that was the fact that I was sitting on a fancy chair on a raised dais. The entire place was made of white marble and draped with turquoise tapestries and adornments. It was the size of a high school gymnasium, had Greek style columns lining down the center, and large breaks in the walls that gave a perfect view of the outside.

The building itself was on a small floating island, surrounded by a gigantic horseshoe waterfall, and overlooking an endless sea of flowers. The world seemed to be in perpetual twilight, and something similar to the northern lights danced around the falls. The waterfall was a perfect semicircle, and looks to be hundreds of thousands of meters wide, and nearly the same, height-wise. From the island, I couldn't see over the top of the falls, but I could only imagine an endless sea, spanning all of eternity.

"This explains pretty much everything really…" I hear a voice mumble from a little bit across the room.

I hoped off my fancy chair and walk closer to Inoichi.

Inoichi stood looking up at one of the walls where a picture hung. Looking closer, I found that it was a picture of me. Not _me_ me, but the _other_ me. The me from before.

Shitballs.

"I thought you said you weren't going to sift through anything?" I ask, a little resigned to whatever will happen now. Crazy-pen, T&I, or whatever; here I come!

Inoichi laughed, "I haven't. I'm not going to, but that doesn't stop me from admiring what you've done with the place, Alex."

I groaned.

Inoichi laughed again, "Don't worry, I've seen your situation before. It's nothing we can't work with. Really, you're going to be an amazing shinobi. Blow the sandals off of everyone!" He seemed absolutely giddy. Inoichi. Giddy…. What?

"...What?" I'm… I don't… Huh?

"You're a Yamanaka! Out of everything, you're a Yamanaka! This is unprecedented!"

"That doesn't explain anything." He just ignored me.

"The conditioning won't really work with you though. Normal procedures won't work, so I'm not sure if I can teach you the clan jutsu… Ugh! Whatever! You're going to kick Itachi's ass!"

What?! Where the fuck? Itachi? Nope. Not even a ten foot pole. We're going to need to start an expedition up Inoichi's ass to find out where he left his head.

"What the _fuck_ are you talking about?"

That snapped Inoichi back to… Reality? What does the inside of my head count as anyway?

"Oh, sorry about that." He looked slightly ashamed. "Well first off, I'll just say what I know about you now." He paused, and I nodded. "I know that you are a reincarnation who has retained your memories from your past life." I gathered that from when he referred to me by name a couple minutes ago. I nodded again. "And I looked at your general personality, just to make sure you're not… is there a less inane word for evil?" He shrugged. "And that's pretty much it, unless you want me to go through all four years you've been with us in this life?"

I shook my head, frowning slightly, "So why are you so excited about this?"

"Well as I said, I've seen this before!"

"So I'm not the only one…" I noticed that he was talking to me as a full adult now. He never talked down to me before, but there was a hint of - well not so much _respect,_ as much as _acknowledgement._ I was a full person in his eyes now, not just a smart kid.

"No, you're not." he says, "In Konoha alone, there are three, including you. Itachi Uchiha, and Kakashi Hatake are the others." I blink, "That is an S-rank secret, by the way. I'm only telling you because you're in the same situation."

I'm freaking out a lot now. For completely different reasons.

Inoichi must see something in my facial expression, "Don't worry, you're not in trouble. In fact this is a boon for you _and_ the clan!" He seemed way too excited about this.

"You have no idea how much publicity the Uchiha got when Itachi started out. A ridiculous amount of people specifically requested him for missions. Hell, they're _still_ requesting him a lot and he's only _nine_."

"So we're going to play off the idea that I'm a genius of my generation for more clan publicity?"

"Well yeah." He looked decidedly embarrassed, "You didn't see how much the Uchiha, and to a greater extent; the village, prospered when Itachi came around." Now he's repeating himself. Damn man, calm down. "Word spreads quickly about child geniuses. They're trusted to complete nearly anything over anyone else in their generation. Konoha got her hands on some of the largest and well paying missions to date, just because they wanted Itachi to work on them."

"Huh." I'd never seen this guy so adamant about anything. Hell, I've never seen him say more than a few sentences at a time.

Wait a minute. Maybe this was an actual thing in cannon. He said that Kakashi was one of the ones who had this too. If he knew anything about the future of the elemental nations, He would have stopped Obito, which I know didn't happen because the Kyuubi still attacked.

This could just be something that was never explored in the show.

That probably also meant that there were others outside the village who had the same thing happen. I would probably never even hear about it either - being thought of as an S-class secret.

"Make sense?"

"I guess. I mean I would love to help out there; It seems like a goal I can get behind. I _do_ want to be a badass shinobi."

Inoichi smiled, "You're going to make waves, Taichi."

We stood there for a bit.

"... So yeah. Was there anything you wanted to do while we're in my head? Or are we done?"

"Ah, Yeah. Do you know anything about your chakra?" Inoichi seemed to calm down significantly. "There were two reasons that the first thing we do with our clan training is a mindwalk. The first is that we need to see if the student is trustworthy, which to be honest, you fail just because you're older than you look. There's a reason we start the training when the student is a child." He looked apologetic. I shrugged. Whatever. Rules are rules, I guess. Being able to read people's minds would be cool, but it wasn't something I was counting on.

"The second reason is to activate your chakra." My interest peaked. "It's best to activate it as early as possible. Mainly because your coils have the most unassisted growth during the first five or so years of a person's life. The easiest way to do so is to show the user the inside of their own head.

"Chakra is like a muscle." He continued, "You need to find it to use it, and it's not safe to mindwalk someone under the age of four. Their mind has to experience enough to give itself shape." He gestured around him, referencing the mindscape itself. "So we wait."

An annoyed look sprung on his face. "I wish I'd done it sooner for you though. Your mind could have withstood it probably two to three months after you were born."

"Wait, why is that important?" I asked.

"Well if you activate your chakra before about five years of age, your coils will grow pretty much by themselves until then. Then you have to constantly work at it." He shrugged, "Nobody really knows why."

I nodded, "Well the sooner the better. What am I looking for in here?"

He shrugged, "It's usually always water. For most people It's a pipe system, a pond, or something. The amount of water portrayed tends to represent the amount of chakra you have. But not always. "

I blinked at him.

"To activate it, you usually just need to get the water moving. For example, with the pipes you would just find a valve and open it. Simple stuff really."

I blinked again.

"I don't really see any water though. Think there's a basement here?"

I just stared at him.

"What?"

Really, I can't believe this guy. I pointed over his shoulder at the huge fucking waterfall.

He looked over his shoulder, then after a second, turned back to me with an expression that said, "What?"

I kept pointing.

Realization dawned on him.

"Holy shit."

* * *

 **A/N:**

The whole "Itachi and Kakashi are also reincarnations" thing is **not** a major plot point. Just a way to explain their genius, as well as put Taichi in a certain position without _too_ many people freaking out. It will not become public knowledge and it shouldn't affect their personalities at all. The only thing that will do that is my shoddy writing.

Kakashi and Itachi do not have any future knowledge like Taichi does. Be it different universes, time period, or whatever, neither lived in a world with any form of Narutoverse media.

If you want a vision of what Taichi's mindscape looks like, look up the Farplane from Final Fantasy 10, and imagine a greek temple on a floating island in the middle of the

If you remember back in the first chapter, Taichi feels something warm spreading through his body from his stomach. He activated his chakra from the womb, but hasn't been able to use it, because he hasn't found the 'muscle.' Don't worry, I'm not giving him a butt-load of chakra or anything too crazy. Just more than the average Uzumaki. No where _near_ the amount Naruto has.

Let's put it in terms of Shadow clones:

\- Average Jounin: 5-10 Shadow clones.

\- Average Uzumaki Jounin: 20-30 Shadow clones.

\- Taichi _now:_ 1 Shadow clone.

\- Taichi as a Jounin: 50 Shadow clones.

\- Naruto: Fucking infinite. What the shit.

(These numbers are subject to change as I write more, but the general gist of it will remain.)

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my ass.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N:

Mari

1\. Yes, Taichi's mother is an Uzumaki.

2\. He will probably not share the information he has with big figures, unless he has to. I don't want the story to revolve around his future knowledge, and if he just throws it out at people, the original plot will die. Also my memory sucks, so Taichi's memory sucks because he's based off of me. He won't remember everything that happens. Be warned: this is a **war story**. Not everything will be solved peacefully, or in the good guys' favor.

3\. Thank you for the suggestion, I don't want to go into what I have planned for him yet, but rest assured, he will be using fuinjutsu.

4\. Probably? Like I said, it's not a major plot point, but it _is_ a thing now, so it might come up in conversation. Might use it as a base to form a friendship between Taichi and Itachi. Or I might just have Sasuke kill Itachi. Or maybe Sasuke will die of pneumonia and Itachi will eat a baby. I don't know. I'm an asshole.

5\. Yes. Naruto _would_ be thrilled to have a known family member…. I have some crazy stuff planned, and sunshine and rainbows for Naruto doesn't really fit the **war** theme I'm going for. But I don't know. It could be a neat little respite from it all.

As of right now, I have until chapter 13 planned out. The darker aspects of the story won't pick up until chapter 9-ish, so early warning on that. As I write the chapters, some of the details change, though. So feel free to offer your suggestions.

I could use a Beta. A couple problems with my writing were brought to my attention. I'm trying to fix it, but an extra set of eyes would be great. Anyone know how the Beta system works?

I don't own Naruto

* * *

"Hey guys."

"Hey Taichi, Hey Ino." replied Choji, "You know you have a leaf stuck to your head, right?"

"Chakra control exercise." I explained.

Shikamaru sighed.

"What's your deal now?" Ino pouted and put her hands on her hips.

He just looked at her with half-lidded eyes, "Troublesome."

I laughed and Ino looked at me helplessly.

"What?" I asked her, "He's probably just hoping his mom doesn't see me doing this. She'll nag him to death to start practicing too." Shika grunted in response. Ino seemed less perturbed.

Choji laughed, "Well I haven't even activated my Chakra yet, so my mom might go up in flames." He munched on a chip, not actually seeming to care.

I walked over to Shikamaru and laid down next to him. "Any good ones today?"

"Not really. There was one that looked kind of like a tree, but it didn't last long."

I grunt.

"How can you be so far ahead of us, and still be so lazy!" Ino pumps her arms up and down.

"MMMMM," says Choji eloquently, mouth full of chips. Probably trying to agree with Ino.

"Exactly. Just do what Choji says, and you'll all be as good as me one day," I deadpan.

Shikamaru laughs. Ino pouts harder.

Choji swallows, "Seriously though, how are you so far ahead? Ino and Shikamaru can't even move their chakra around yet, and mine's not even activated."

I shrug, "I'm just more motivated I guess. I mean I know if Shika actually gave a shit, he'd be _way_ beyond me."

"Taichi! Language!" Ino screeches.

"Ino! Volume!" I said back, guarding my eardrums, "Hot damn."

"Taichi!"

I shrunk from the noise, "Sorry, geeze."

Choji laughed, "He's probably right, though. Shika's got it better than any of us."

Said cloud-watcher groaned.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, "You guys'll get it. Don't worry."

"How do you know?" Ino asks. I looked over from my spot on the ground to see her genuinely worried.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"How could you possibly know?" she mumbles, drawing her knees in and clutching them in her arms. Huh. Well she _is_ a four-year-old. She sees me doing things with chakra that she can't even hope to do at this stage.

I stared at her for a few seconds, "I know the future."

She looked up at me, "No you don't."

"I totally do." Ahh, the truth. So outlandish that it _must_ be a lie.

"Then what are we having for dinner tonight?" she asks, smug.

"Curry." I didn't even blink. My mom was cooking. She only ever makes curry.

"Wha-" she pauses, "Wait aunt Tomo is cooking, isn't she? Gah! That's not fair, you cheated!" she points at me.

Shikamaru and Choji laugh, I just smile cheekily, "Do not doubt me! I am all-knowing!"

She pouts.

I get up and put my hand on her head, "Don't worry, you'll be fine. You've got us to cheer you on, right guys?" Shikamaru holds a thumbs-up from his spot on the ground. Choji smiles at her and nods, then tosses another chip in his mouth with a crunch.

Her eyes water slightly. She tries to say something, but seems to choke on it at first, "Thanks you guys," she mumbles, wiping away almost-formed tears.

I smile at her.

She looks up at me, "You know, I really can't take you seriously with that leaf on your head."

"It's my all-powerful battle strategy!" I say proudly, "Nobody will suspect the guy with a leaf on his head!"

"I think _everyone_ will suspect the guy with a leaf on his head." Shikamaru retorts.

"Nobody asked you," I mumble and Choji snorts, "Fine! It'll be great camouflage then!"

"A single leaf? On your forehead?" Shikamaru asks, "Really?"

I frown at him, "All hail Shikamaru Nara, the killer of fun."

He chuckles, "You know it."

* * *

"Stop. Adding an air-mark there in conjunction with lateral structure in the fourth quadrant," Mom points at the bottom right of the seal I'm working on, "will destabilize the flow mechanism. Yes, it will make the storage space larger, but it will create an omnidirectional flash-singularity whenever you activate it. You'll lose whatever limb you activate it with."

I sigh, "Would a bilateral structure work better for the quadrants? I don't want to make this too detailed. Way too hard to use in a fight."

She 'hmm's, "Well you could try a hexagonal structure and add stability charges on the two, four, and six stars."

"But that would reduce activation speed. I need it to have an absolute ass-ton of storage, and I'll need to get to it _fast._ "

"Language, Taichi," she says offhandedly. Too focused to really care about my vernacular. "You're going to need something new, then."

"... Hold on, the whole reason we were working with the four-point structure was it's crazy capacity. So what if I doubled it-"

"The eight point system is more stable, but nearly impossible to use in the field." Mom cuts in.

"Yeah, but what if the Uzumaki star system can be overlaid on the points."

A light shines in her eyes, "You would have to reform the star with Rizu or Tazu script but... That would make it stable, and reduce the activation time enoughto use it in battle _._ Taichi, that's _genius!"_

I grab a new sheet and start a rough scribble of the new design, "So eight points, but forgetting the Fuzashi points, and add the Uzumaki ones." I draw eight swirls on the tips of an eight pointed star, and do the correct script adjustments. "Now for the space-time warping bullshit." The standard storage script won't work for this bad boy. "We need something different for the flow mechanism. It won't transfer over well from the four-point design."

"Yeah it will. You had it in bilateral. You can keep the Inari script for the cover, but you need to double it to stabilize the primary activation sequence."

"Over a quad line?"

"Over a quad line."

I stare at the design for a second and smile, "Awesome!"

"Okay, now the secondary activation is going to be the hard part," she says, "You need to selectively reverse the storage singularity."

"I have an idea for that," I said, "We can invert the Inari cover script, as we planned, but this time only in the second and third quadrants. We'll connect it to the primary storage, then invert the _flow_ mechanism."

She thought that over for a second, "That should work. Inverting the flow would destabilize it, but the eight-star system should take care of that nicely. Good catch."

"And that leaves a bunch more room for speed script than we had before!" I realized happily.

"Taichi, you will be a force to be reckoned with." mom said proudly.

"Let's give this a shot!" I held up the finished product.

* * *

"That did _not_ work."

My mother looked at me, incredulous, "D-didn't work? How do you consider that _not_ working?" She points to a felled tree with fifty kunai sticking out of it.

"They all came out at once!"

"Isn't that what you wanted?"

"No!" I say, frustrated, "I only wanted one to come out per activation."

She sighs, "Well we know the primary activation works, so all we have to do is alter the secondary activation so that it syphons through the content of the storage space. We might have to sacrifice some of the extra speed script, though."

I sigh, "Alright, I think we only have to update the inverse flow mechanism. Shouldn't be too hard."

* * *

"That was _way_ harder than it should have been."

"Well at least it's completed now." Mom placates.

I look back over to the forest line. Every tree has twenty or so kunai spurting from its trunk. "Yeah, and it's awesome!"

* * *

"Nope." I tossed the book back onto the shelf, "Why do all the basic ones focus on defense?!"

I made the trip to the library to look up taijutsu styles. There was an ungodly amount of them, but the only ones that I had access to as a civilian seemed to be defense oriented. It made sense if I thought about it though; I mean this is basically a government under martial law. We don't want to give the civilians the ability to attack us from the inside, but we want them to be able to protect themselves as much as possible.

I sigh. I guess I'm stuck with a defensive technique for now.

"Hey kid, looking for something?"

"Yeah, I want to start on taijutsu, but none of these styles are any good." I pick up another book.

"What are you? Three? And you're already trying to pick up taijutsu? Iruka's going to love you."

"Hey! I'll be five in a few months!" I said, just now turning to see my heckler.

Holy shit that's Asuma.

He laughed and raised his hands, "Sorry, sorry." Then ploped an unlit cigarette in his mouth. "It's just weird seeing a kid your age looking through this section."

"I'm a weird kid." I said simply.

He studied me.

"What?"

"What's your chakra nature, kid?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

He sighed, "It usually helps to have a style that fits with your nature. Makes it easy to learn and, well, yeah." He waved his hand dismissively, not wanting to explain further.

"You suck at explaining things."

"Whatever kid. What's your nature?"

I stare at him, unimpressed, "Not a clue. It's on my list of stuff to figure out."

He sighed. Again. Then pulled a slip of paper out of his breast pocket and handed it to me. Wait, is this chakra paper? Did he just give me chakra paper? What?

"Put some chakra into that."

Wait. "How do you know I can use chakra?"

"You have a leaf stuck to your head." He pointed out.

Oh, that would do it. I've gotten to the point where I forget I'm doing it. I channel some into the paper and it gets all soggy. Water, then.

He hmm's, then walked over to one of the shelves I was having trouble reaching up to, and grabbed a book. He flipped through the first few pages, snapped it shut, and tossed it over to me. "Try that one."

I looked at the cover, "Flowing Lotus?" I return my gaze to the twenty-something man, "That must be the most cliché name I've ever heard."

He laughed, "Well that's an original. I think you'll like it, anyway."

"Why's that?" I flip through the first few pages.

"The First Hokage helped to develop it."

I looked up at him in shock, "Seriously? Why don't more people use it?"

He shrugged, "Not many people here have a water nature, in Konoha it's mostly fire, lightning, and earth."

"Huh." I looked down at the book again, "Why did you help me? Chakra paper must be expensive."

He raised an eyebrow, "You know about that?" He flicked his cigarette around in his mouth, "Well, you're interesting. If I had to pick a reason, it'd be that." He waved over his shoulder as he walked to a more restricted area of the library.

"Flowing Lotus, huh?" I stare at the small lotus design on the spine of the book. "Ino's going to laugh at me."

* * *

A/N:

Was the techno-babble on the sealing too much? I tried to make it plausible.

And as usual:

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.**

Please **do not** shove insults up my ass. That's what my butt-plug is fo- *Clears throat* What was that? Nevermind, moving on.

 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**

Thank you all for the continued interest! I hope my writing is getting better, but I feel like it's getting worse… Maybe I'm just seeing more problems because I'm improving? Well that's what I'll keep telling myself - at least until someone tells me how much I suck.

Sorry for the long wait. Life has shoved a rather pointy stick up my ass, then started to wiggle it around a lot. The damned stick managed to poke the organ that controls my mental state, so I've been trying to patch it up before writing anything else.

For when characters learn new things (Like taijutsu styles), I'm going to try and make this simple, for my sanity and your comprehension I'm going to split the process into three recognizable levels: Genin, Chunin, and Jounin.

 _(In terms of taijutsu)_

 **Genin:** A newbie. They can respectably use the style.

 **Chunin & Special Jounin:** Generally the peak of what normal people can accomplish without training like Maito Guy.

 **Jounin:** A kungfu master. (Ex: Kakashi, Guy, Jiraya, The Third) The way I see it; people like the Third and Jiraya aren't better than people like Kakashi with the actual style, they just have other means of winning, like superior speed, power, chakra reserves, or the addition of other skills like ninjutsu. Every skill that a person has will be rated on this scale. Jiraya is a Sanin, not because he has Sanin level abilities, but because he has _a fuck load_ of Jounin level abilities.

I do not own Naruto.

* * *

"Looks pretty good." I nodded at myself in the mirror, zipping up my vest. I was six years old with a few inches of vibrant red hair, wearing a ninja-wire mesh shirt - the ninja version of chainmail - under a thinly padded black vest. On my hands were thin gloves with flexible, metal-link wrist guards, and on my bottom half: standard issue cargo pants, and those stupid - but comfortable - sandals.

Mom had just got me some new clothes for starting the Academy, but didn't let me pick any of it. The haul was a tad underwhelming in style, but it really didn't look bad on me.

I turned, getting a better look at myself in the mirror to see if my new vest covered up my fancy tattoo. It did, but barely.

It took some convincing to get my mom to tattoo a gravity seal at the base of my neck on my fifth birthday. She thought I would put too much chakra into it, and crush myself. She was right, of course. I nearly died the first time I put a bit of chakra in. Nobody stressed just how _little_ chakra the seal needs to add an extra twenty pounds to every atom in your body.

Well now that I think about it, she might have said _something_ about that.

Anyway, at this point I had two permanent seals at my disposal; the first was the gravity seal, which was tattooed on my skin, and the second was sewed into the palm of my right glove. This was the projectile-based seal that my mom and I had created two years prior. That one was exciting, however it created an interesting problem: I'd wanted to tattoo the thing onto my palm, so that I could never lose it, but the placement would disable my ability to use hand seals. This was due to the fact that when you make a hand seal, you need to channel chakra to your hands, which would mold the chakra to the shape of your fingers, creating the three-dimensional seal.

This process would be completely tossed out the window with the placement of my projectile seal because whenever I would go to make a hand-sign, the seal would activate, and I would stab myself.

Granted, putting it on a glove presented the same problem, but I could remove the glove. I couldn't remove my skin.

I'd never really taken the time to examine myself in the mirror before. A quick glance to make sure I didn't look like shit was about all I needed.

What? It's not like I was trying to impress anyone. I was six.

My figure was lean and muscular for a small child. Puberty still hadn't kicked in, so I didn't want to stress my physical growth too much. I did the basic exercises; like running, pushups, situps, and taijutsu katas, but my main focus was dexterity and precise movements. I figured that would be the thing to focus on instead of strength and stamina.

Don't get the wrong idea though; I didn't shirk on the strength and stamina training, I just didn't focus on it.

Now none of what I saw in the mirror reflected my specialty: Chakra control.

Oh Kami that shit was beautiful.

I imagine all the other kids treated Chakra like someone back in my old world would treat a good kitchen knife: it's a great tool, but it's common. What's the deal?

Me? Chakra was mind-boggling. It could let the user break physics, pull magical bullshit out of nothing, and let one person alter a landscape in less than a second. Now I realize I basically just said the same thing three times in different words, but Kami damn it; Chakra rocked!

Almost as soon as I figured out how to use my chakra, I started trying to use it. As it turns out, I have a lot of it for my age. Nothing super crazy, but enough to freak people out a bit.

By the time I hit five years old, I could walk up walls and jump across the rooftops, and a few months after that, I could finally walk on water.

I had Ino calling me Jesus for a week.

She didn't know who that was, but I found it hilarious.

Enhancing my body with chakra was pretty instinctual, as well. It didn't seem to use much of it at all, either. It was as simple as circulating chakra through your limbs; the more you used, the bigger the effect you would see, and the more chakra would dissipate through the action. Simple. Intuitive. Nothing crazy there.

The crazy part was when I figured out how to body flicker.

That shit took me half a year to figure out.

I'm the type of guy to prioritize speed over strength, so when I figured out that I could use chakra to enhance myself, I tried to remember who in the series was famed for their speed.

I came up with three techniques.

The Raikage's lightning thing was out. I didn't have the right chakra nature, and I doubt the guy would teach me.

The Fourth Hokage's Hirashin would be awesome, but I wanted something I could use within the next decade, and that would require more research and development than I was prepared to do.

Then I remembered someone else: Shunshin no Shisui. This guy became famous with a jutsu that was said to be almost impossible to use in battle. It's so hard to control, that it can only really be used for travel, or split-second escape. However, Shisui Uchiha managed to get so good with it that he could seemingly teleport around a battlefield like the Kami-damned Fourth Hokage with a basic jutsu. _That,_ boys and girls, is what I call a role model.

It took me asking a lot of questions, but I found it in the unrestricted section of the library.

Seriously.

Now the Shunshin isn't a super difficult jutsu to perform. It just requires a certain amount of chakra, and enough control to flash-flood your whole body with it. However, it is _damn_ hard to control, so I imagine that's why nobody really feared it getting into the wrong hands. All it is, is barely controlled speed. I plowed right through a tree my first time.

Yes, _through_ a tree.

"Taichi!" my mom knocks on the door, "Are you awake? Come on, you'll be late!"

"I'm up, Kaa-san." I reply, opening the door, "How do I look?"

She looked me over slowly and squealed, "Oh you're so handsome!" Glomp, "My cute little ninja!"

"Kaa-sa~an! I can't breath!" My mom was never really blown away by my apparent genius. She just seemed to work with it as it was, treating me like an adult for serious stuff, and as a regular kid for nearly everything else. Uncle Inoichi never told her about my reincarnation situation, at my request, so as far as I knew, she thought I was just a normal kid that was a bit more mature than the norm.

And I truly loved her for it.

She let go of me, leaving her hands on my shoulders, "Are you ready for your first day at the Academy, sweetie?"

I sighed, "You know I won't learn anything there. I don't see why you won't let me skip a few years."

She pouted, "We talked about this, Taichi. Being a shinobi is dangerous work. You'll have to go out into the field as soon as you graduate. I don't want you out there. Not until you've at least gotten into the double digits."

"Well what if my sensei pushes for me to move up?"

She frowns and thinks for a second, "Two years. You can move up two years. I don't want you graduating until you're at least ten."

"But it's going to be so bo~oring!" I whine, though the only thing I can think is, "Success!"

"No buts." she says, "Now come on, we need to get some breakfast in you."

"Curry is not breakfast."

"Of course it is." She huffs, and leads me downstairs.

* * *

"Ino Yamanaka!"

"Here, Sensei!" Ino waves her hand around in the air next to me.

"Taichi Yamanaka!"

"Here." I say, lazily raising my hand.

Roll call. All of my memories of school have come back with a vengeance.

Please, oh great Kami. Please answer my call and lead me away from this awful pla-

"Psst!" Ino elbows me "Psst! Taichi! Why are you praying during roll call?"

"I am asking for salvation."

"What's 'salvation' me-" A piece of chalk darts from the front of the classroom, pelting Ino in the forehead, "Ow!"

"No talking during roll call!"

"Sorry Iruka-sensei," Ino says sheepishly.

He just nods and goes back to calling the last few names on the list.

I sigh and take the chance to look around the room.

Obviously, I'm in the same class as all the Rookie Nine, so it's not difficult to distinguish Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto from all of the other students. I already know Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru pretty well, so I don't really count them in my scan.

Hinata was sitting a couple seats away from me, next to Ino. She seemed completely at war with herself, fidgeting her hands around in her lap. Kiba and Naruto were sitting in the back of the room, asleep next to Shikamaru, and Shino was staring blankly at Iruka-sensei while Choji munched on chips next to him.

Once Iruka started on the beginning lecture, the only two kids out of the Rookie Nine who started to take notes were Sasuke and Sakura.

For a while after that, I just stared at Sasuke. Something seemed completely off to me about him. It wasn't until about twenty minutes later that it hit me.

He wasn't a brooding, emo asshole.

Then the figurative slap to the face: Oh shit, the Uchiha massacre!

Could I do anything about that? When was that supposed to happen? Later this year?

... Did I _want_ to do anything about it?

If I was honest with myself, No. No I didn't. I didn't like the Uchiha. They broke nearly everything they ever got their hands on. Not to mention the only one I ever really respected was Itachi, and he was the guy who was going to wipe them off the map.

Then there was the fact that I wanted some inkling into the future events of the story, and if I messed with a major event like this, there's no telling what kind of waves that would make.

Also I was _six._ I was six, and not willing to get in _Danzo's_ way just yet.

Fuck that guy terrifies me.

Well I guess that's my answer then. Not going to interfere. I turn my attention back to Iruka-sensei.

"So who knows what a shinobi is?" Iruka asks.

Sakura's hand shoots up just as my head falls onto my desk, groaning.

* * *

"Alright everyone, have a good afternoon, and remember to get enough sleep for tomorrow. We're starting the day with a run." Iruka informs us, and the class groans.

Everyone starts to pack up and leave, but I stay behind.

"Taichi?" Ino asks.

"I just want to talk to Iruka-sensei for a second. Go say 'Hi' to Uncle Inoichi for me?"

She looks at me puzzled for a second, then nods.

"Iruka-sensei?" I say, walking up to him.

"Taichi-kun, how was class?" He smiled at me.

"Boring." Iruka's smile falters for a second. "Don't get me wrong. You're a great teacher, but I am leagues ahead of where this class is."

"What makes you say that?" Genuine confusion.

I think for a second, "Well let me put it this way," I put down my stuff and walk over to the wall, "I can do this." I take a couple steps up the wall, "And you asked us if we knew what a shinobi was this morning."

Iruka blinks.

Blinks again.

"Huh." Eloquent. Did I break him?

"Sensei?" I ask.

That seemed to shake him out of it. "Oh, well yeah, I think we can arrange a test to see where you are. I can get the papers together tomorrow, if you want to take it during lunch?"

"That works." I pause, "I only want to go up two years though. Kaa-san would kill me if I graduate before I turn ten."

He huffed, still pretty surprised, "Well, we'll see tomorrow."

I nod and pick up my stuff, "Sure. Have a nice day, Sensei."

"Y-yeah, you too."

* * *

 **A/N:**

OK, so let's go through what Taichi can do by age six:

\- He is a Fuinjutsu master, but only with the storage applications. So no crazy nuclear explosive notes, and no overpowered… other stuff, but give him an hour of setup time, and he can carry the hokage tower around in a scroll. He _can_ make some other stuff too, like knockout tags, basic exploding notes, simple locks, etc. Nothing crazy.

\- He has about enough chakra for two or three shadow clones, but doesn't know the jutsu.

\- His control is good enough to water-walk. He entertains himself with chakra control exercises. It's what he does when he's resting and bored. I know that if I could make stuff stick to me, and spin rocks around on my fingers, I'd be doing that shit constantly.

\- He is at the genin level of the Flowing Lotus taijutsu style. This is not too outlandish, as I imagine the clan kids to all have access to advanced training from a really young age. It shouldn't be surprising if they're all genin level early on in the Academy. He should be about equal to Sasuke and Neji in taijutsu.

\- He can body flicker though he can **not** use it like Shisui could.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.**

Please **do not** shove insults up my ass. It's fragile and shy. You'll scare it away, and I kind of need it.

 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:**

Hey guys. How's it going?...

This is where you're supposed to answer me...

Stop staring, you're creeping me out.

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

Everything about the Academy is boring. Especially if you already know the material. I mean I was a college graduate in my past life. This was Kami-damned elementary school again.

OK, granted there were two subjects that actually caught my interest: codes, and Chakra. Whenever either of those came up, the teacher had my undivided attention.

Now; however, we were learning the basics of algebra.

I had been moved up to a more advanced class a year ago, but even that didn't help to cure my utter boredom. It didn't really bother me that my mom wanted to hold me back. I was on the same page, really. I didn't want to go out into the field just yet. No matter what Itachi and Kakashi did, the battlefield is no place for a seven-year-old such as myself. It didn't really matter that I could wipe the floor with anyone nearly any genin, it was the principle of the thing.

To keep myself from banging my head on the table for days on end, I tried to entertain myself with chakra control exercises, or books on fuinjutsu that my mom had lying around the house.

At the moment, I was staring intently at two floating orbs revolving around my index finger. They were the size of large marbles; one was solid white, while the other was a deep black.

"How are you doing that?"

I look over to the voice. "Doing what?"

Mai Kumichi was a little slip of a girl, wearing a light purple, hooded vest, brawler gloves, and cargo pants. She was nine; two years older than me, much like the rest of the class, and civilian born.

"That!" she said, pointing to the two orbs that were still revolving around my finger.

I looked at my finger, then back to her. "I have no idea what you're talking about," I deadpan.

She turns beat red. Oh man this girl is easy to rile up, but she's cut off before she can say anything else.

"Mai-chan, leave Taichi-kun alone and listen. I'm testing you on this tomorrow." Kimiko Yuma was an amazing teacher. She would explain every concept in an easy to understand way, she went out of her way to help people with anything they were struggling with, and she tolerated no shit. But she was nice about it.

"But Yuma-sensei! Taichi isn't paying attention at all! He's just playing with marbles!"

She sighed and looked at me, thinking to herself for a good minute. Then she sighed and turned to the blackboard behind her, "Taichi-kun," she said, writing up a relatively advanced calculus problem on the board, "Please solve this for us."

"Aren't we learning algebra? We shouldn't even touch calculus for another year or two, right?" I ask.

She noded and looked at me expectantly.

I rolled my eyes and got up to walk to the blackboard. As I got closer, I examined the problem. Derivatives of integrals. Ugh, this would take me a few minutes. I hate math.

I picked up the chalk and began to hash out an answer on the board.

A few minutes later, "Happy?" I asked, putting the chalk down and turning to Yuma-sensei.

She noded, satisfied as the rest of the class stared dumly between me and the chalkboard.

"That's why I don't really care if Taichi listens, so stop worrying about him and make sure that you all pass the test tomorrow."

* * *

The Academy was a complete waste of time for me. The coding class was interesting, but they spent entirely too much time reviewing the information. Kids didn't pick up on boring stuff like that easily.

The class was basically about the standard field sign language. I was fluent in a month.

Whoa now, unruffle your panties. It wasn't that hard, the language only covered basic ideas, like "Go, target vulnerable," or "Stealth required. No ninjutsu," There was no real grammatical structure to learn, and it wasn't like I was learning anything in math class, so I had a ton of extra time.

My other favorite; the chakra class, was equally stupid. Mainly just because we had two minutes of instruction at the beginning, then the rest was basic chakra control exercises for an hour. Everybody was trying to stick leaves to their heads, and I was sitting on the ceiling twirling Yin/Yang marbles around my noggin.

OK, yeah, I'm a bit of a showoff, but I was _bored._

Now all that lead up to the one class we had after lunch: training.

This was split up into three sections: endurance training, taijutsu spars, and throwing practice.

This was the only section that I actually fit in nicely. My placement in all three was around the middle of the class. This was just because I kept adding more chakra to my gravity seal if I started to pull too far ahead of everybody. This meant that I lost just as much as I won in the spars, and my endurance appeared to be about average.

I sometimes found myself wondering how much extra weight I'd been carrying around. I mean I hadn't ever released the built up chakra in the seal, so it just kept getting heavier. At this point, I was pretty sure that If I wanted to bring it back to the same weight, I would have to nearly empty my chakra reserves into the seal.

This process of mine really forced me to get better in the skill department. I couldn't rely on speed or strength to overpower my opponent because of the gravity seal, so I had to straight up out-perform them. Not to mention they didn't let us use anything other than the Konoha standard forms, so my taijutsu style with the clichéd name was useless.

On the plus side, the Konoha standard had a few ways to start a confrontation. Which was a nice change from the Flowing Lotus.

"Are you going to stand up, or am I going to have to come over there?"

I sigh, brought back from my musings, "No, no, Yuma-sensei. I think I can handle it."

I stood back up slowly, looking at the smug countenance of the nine-year-old who just put me on my ass.

"Ready for round two, Nameless-Academy-Student-Number-Twelve?"

Oooo that pissed him off, "I told you like seventeen times!-"

"Can you even count that high?" I muse, and a couple kids watching chuckle.

"My name is ****** ********!" He fumed, looking decidedly put out.

I look at him with half lidded eyes, "Sorry, I think my brain just blocked you out. All I heard there was, 'Be~~ep.'" I dig my pinky into my ear, in an effort to clear out some wax.

"RRRAAAAAAGGHHH" He charged at me blindly, completely forgetting about the match.

I sidestepped his first punch with a grin, slamming my forearm into his, knocking him off balance, and sweeped his over-extended leg with a light kick. That gave me room to come back around with a straight jab to his gut, putting him down for the count.

"You're not going to make too many friends like that, Taichi-kun." Yuma-sensei said.

"It worked, didn't it?" I frown.

"That's not really the point."

"Hey, everybody keeps telling us to keep a clear head in battle. All I did was make it hard for Number Twelve to do so."

She studied me for a minute, then just sighed and walked to mediate another spar.

"Nice win, Taichi."

I turn around, "Hey Shiro. Thanks."

Shiro Nara was by far the laziest kid in class. I suppose that isn't really surprising, I mean he _is_ a Nara afterall. I swear, when it comes to the Nara clan, as intelligence increases, laziness follows.

He was wearing a skin-tight, black tee-shirt with a thin, grey hoodie over top, and grey cargo pants. His hair was on the long side and tied back in a small ponytail.

I'd known Shiro for nearly as long as I'd known Shikamaru. He was always around the Nara compound, so whenever I'd hang out over there, I found myself gravitating to the older kid. He was less annoying than baby Ino. We'd spend most of our time cloud watching with Shikamaru while I fiddled with my chakra.

So basically Shiro and I were old friends, and he was really the only one I could call a friend in the class. He was the only kid there that was at least somewhat on my mental level.

"Did you have to eat into the guy like that? You don't usually issue out an ego-beating." He yawns.

"Ehh, I didn't like the look on his face when he put me on the ground. Why? Think I was too hard on him?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nahh, I thought it was hilarious."

I chuckled, "Have you gone yet?"

"Yeah," He scratched an itch behind his ear, "Got my ass kicked."

I full on laughed this time, "You know you would be the top of the class if you actually gave a shit, right?"

"For shame, Taichi!" He mock gasped, raising his hand over his heart, "Wherever did you learn to talk like that?"

"Oh fuck off."

He chuckled.

* * *

"Hey Taichi, are you bored in the Academy yet?" Uncle Inoichi said as he walked over to my spot under a tree. The compound was mostly empty this time of day. Nice for a bit of rest under the sun.

Bored? Hell yes, I was bored. Nobody would teach me anything other than chakra control exercises, math, and Konoha Standard. Literally the only thing I could do to pass the time was train. I mean I _could_ go and hang out with people, but I couldn't stand being in the same room as a bunch of seven-year-olds for more than thirty minutes. They just grate on your nerves after a while. Shiro and Shikamaru were my salvation when it came to intelligent conversation, but they didn't give a rat's ass about getting stronger, and that's all I really wanted to do.

Every time I thought about what I would be up against once I graduate, I saw every member of Akatsuki, Madara, Kaguya, and even people like Zabuza. I knew for a fact that if I went up against any of them, I would get my ass handed to me in no time at all. I figured that if I released my gravity seal, I might be able to fight low chunin on an equal ground - if they only used taijutsu - but I was woefully inadequate otherwise.

My repertoire was horrible. I mean _yes,_ I had fuinjutsu and the body-flicker under my belt, but I wasn't advanced enough in either of those to use them in any real battle scenario.

"No~o," I said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "What would _ever_ give you that idea?"

He snorted, "Well I might have something for you to work on." I perked up. "You can use the Body-Flicker, right?"

Huh, now that I thought about it, I never did show him. I used it _a lot_ just to get around, but I never made a big deal of it.

I nod.

"Well have you ever tried to do it without hand seals? Your control is phenomenal, I think you should be able to do it."

I blink. "What hand seals?"

Now it was his turn to blink, then just stare at me.

"Uncle Inoichi, you there?."

"You mean that you've been using the Shunshin no Jutsu without hand seals this entire time?"

"Um… Yes?" Wait, "You mean to tell me that I learned it the hard way?! There were seals I could have used?! That took me _six months!"_

He just rubbed his eyes, "Oh Kami this is ridiculous, I mean I know that it's a D-rank jutsu and all, but you're breaking precedents here. You didn't even use one-handed seals, just jumped straight to none at all."

"Wait, wait." I put my hands up, "From the beginning please. I didn't even know that you could reduce hand seals. This solves like _all_ of my problems." It really did, too. I'd been trying to think of a way to keep my projectile seal on my right palm - I really need to find a cooler name for that thing - and still be able to use hand seals. If I could just use my left hand for the seals, or none at all, it would be golden.

"Well it's a bit more difficult than it sounds. First off, it takes a _lot_ more control to use reduced hand seals. I don't know any Genin who are able to reduce the seals for any of the basic three at all. Second, it takes more chakra. Not _much_ more, granted, but more. However, you can reduce that extra cost with more control."

"Basic three?" I already knew about them, but I still didn't want to give anyone a hint at just _how much_ I knew about this world. As far as they know, I was just a kid with the mind of an adult.

"Ah, I guess they haven't even mentioned them in the Academy yet, huh?" I nod. "Well, there's the Henge, Clone, and Body-Replacement. Henge lets you change your appearance, Clone lets you make an illusory clone of yourself, and Body-Replacement lets you switch your body with something of similar mass to get out of a tight situation. They're all seen as some of the most basic skills a ninja should know, and honestly, the Body-Flicker is a bit more advanced, but it should really be a part of that list."

"When do they start teaching those?" I ask.

"Usually not till your last couple years there."

"What?! You mean I have to wait another year or two before anyone even _mentions_ these fucking things?!"

"Language, Taichi. Seriously. You're supposed to be _seven."_

I fold my arms, "Oh give me a break. I'm being seriously held back here."

He laughs, "Well I _suppose_ I could give you a little advanced instruction. We needed to find something else for you to do instead of the clan training anyway. I'm starting Ino on the Mind-Body-Switch soon, and I don't really want to leave you out on your own."

"That would be appreciated."

* * *

 **A/N:**

Remember guys and gals, it is very possible that I'm accidentally stealing ideas from other stories. I've read a lot of them, so my brain might fart and think that it was something original. If you catch a slip-up, please let me know so that I can toss in a citation of some kind. I don't think I've done it so far, but I don't want to _actually_ steal stuff. That shit just wouldn't sit right with me.

Now 95% of this story **is** original, but there is the chance that someone's had the same idea as me. In which case, I would still like to at least reference their work. You know, share the love and all that.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.**

Please **do not** shove insults up my ass. It might back up all the shit to the point where it comes out the other end, and _who knows_ what that would do to my writing…. I do. It'd be shit. My writing would be shit... Get it? Because I said it would get backed up- You know what, nevermind.

 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:**

I'm sorry everyone for how short these chapters are. The fact of the matter is that I'm just a slow writer. I don't just punch these out in a day. It takes the whole 4-5ish days between posts to throw one of these up (This one notwithstanding - 1.5 days since the last update! Wooo!). This is the pace that is the most comfortable for me, especially during the "boring" parts of the story. My chapter length has been steadily growing as I move forward, and I can guarantee that I'll write more during the exciting parts, or actual plot points, instead of general character building - like what a lot of that last chapter was. Boring, everyday conversations are not as interesting as melting a guy's face off with a super-heated toilet scrub.

I have up to chapter 27 planned out now, and that's just near the end of the chunin exams… So yeah, a lot of shit's gonna happen.

I do not own Naruto.

* * *

I spent four years in the academy, where most people spent six. I was ten years old, and I was what people called a "genius." I picked up every concept at a speed no child was expected to, I had mastered all of the Academy Three Jutsu without hand seals, I had a reputation for showing up at places without anyone noticing me, and I walked on walls whenever I could, pushing my control and focus to higher and higher levels. I was quite famous for it all too, just like how Uncle Inoichi predicted six years prior. The people of this world went nuts for a talented young shinobi.

There were hundreds of queries piled up in a corner of the Hokage's office wondering when I would graduate, and even a couple requesting my services despite the fact that I wasn't an official shinobi.

Now this feels like I'm tootin' my own horn here, but it was more annoying for me than anyone else. I didn't want to be a celebrity, I just wanted to survive everything that this fucked up world would throw at me.

I was hitting my first real milestone today, and that's how I found myself at the Academy waiting for Yuma-sensei to announce our genin teams.

I wasn't really worried about who I'd be placed with. I made a point to not make any enemies in my class. Don't get me wrong, I could be an asshole every once in a while, but I didn't ever push it to the point of people actually disliking me. I played it pretty neutral, so even though I didn't have any enemies, I had no real friends outside of Shiro. I never gloated when I won a spar, or sulked when I lost, I was just kind of _there._

So in essence, I could work with anyone in the class, and be good to go.

It just so happened that there were really only two people in the class that I talked to regularly: Mai, and Shiro. Mai sat next to me and always asked me questions about topics in class, and Shiro was my only real friend, so I guess it wasn't too big of a stretch that they tossed us all on the same team. Friends work better together, afterall.

"Team Three: Mai Kumichi, Shiro Nara, and Taichi Yamanaka. Your Jounin sensei is Niashi Fukumi." Yuma-sensei looked us each in the eye.

I nodded.

The team was kind of a bootleg Ino-Shika-Cho combo, now that I thought about it. Mai was a brawler. She was one of the best in the class when it came to getting up in her opponent's face, and dishing the damage, so she was probably meant as an Akimichi replacement. Shiro was pretty much a classic Nara, so he fit the bill, and I had the Yamanaka name.

I was not a classic Yamanaka, but my skill set was right on track for the combination. The Ino-Shika-Cho was optimized for information gathering, Infiltration, and guerrilla warfare. I focused on speed over pretty much everything else, I was an amazing sneak, and every Yamanaka was taught in information gathering. Now that I really thought about it, I could make one hell of a spy in a few years.

I really couldn't be happier with the selection, and when I looked at my new teammates, their smiles seemed to indicate the same.

* * *

"So kids, I'm going to give this to you straight," Niashi-sensei said once we got to training ground thirty three, "I don't want a genin team." We all look up at her; Mai in confusion, Shiro warily, and me with a bored expression. "Us jounin are given the option of testing our respective teams to see if they have what it takes. _That's_ the real genin exam. Two thirds of all prospective geinin fail to meet their instructors' standards."

She gave us a couple minutes to digest that. She _did_ just spring it all on us at once.

"So that's why the exam at the Academy was so fucking easy." Shiro says, the realization still shining in his eyes.

Niashi-sensei snorts.

Mai faces the sky and closes her eyes, "Aww man, not another test."

Sensei looks to me.

"What?" I ask, "I'm waiting for your point. I already knew all that."

She cocks an eyebrow, "Did you now?"

I stare at her, oh so tempted to say "No" in the most sarcastic way possible. But then she would be inclined to kick my ass out of sheer annoyance.

She sighed. "Well didn't you three just have to take all the fun out of this for me. You're supposed to freak out."

"Can we get on with this already?" Shiro interjects.

"Yeah yeah, alright." She held her hands up in a Tiger seal, and three clones popped into existence. "The test is simple. You each get a clone. Pop it by noon. One hit should do it."

Mai raised her hand, "What if one of us can't do it? Genin are teams of three."

Sensei just shrugs. "Then you all fail." She examines her fingernails, "If even one of them is still around by noon, then you all go back to the academy… Or maybe the Genin Corps if you impress me enough for a recommendation. I hear that's a pretty easy job."

Mai frowns, "But that's not fair at all!"

"Tough shit. Didn't you hear me in the beginning? I don't want a team." She looked at all of us with a bored expression, then walked towards the tree line, "Time starts now, by the way."

We all jump back from the clones who just stand there expectantly.

"Fuck, I don't want to fight even the _clone_ of a jounin." Shiro said dejectedly.

"With you there, bud." I replied, getting into a ready stance.

"Left one first?" Shiro suggested.

"Sounds good to me."

"What are you two going on about?" Mai asks.

"We're ganging up on the left one. Mai, you're our front-liner, Taichi's interference, and I'll be suppor-"

"Wait, why are we helping you take out yours? Isn't this an individual thing? Where each of us proves our mettle, or something?"

Shiro and I looked at eachother, then back to her. "Oh Mai. You're adorable." I said.

Shiro snorted.

"Hey! Don't mock me!" Mai said, blushing.

"Any day now, kiddies." Sensei yelled from across the field.

"Keep your panties on, we're strategizing." I yelled back.

"Probably not a good Idea to antagonize the jounin, Taichi." Shiro says.

"I'd have to agree with you there." I turned around just in time to see a fist collide with my face, pummeling me into the ground.

"Taichi!" I heard Mai scream.

"Shit. Taichi get your ass up. Mai, get over here!" Shiro bolted to the newly dug hole that I was laying in.

"Ugh," I groan, "Did anyone catch the licence plate of the _bus_ that just hit me?"

"The fuck's a bus?" Shiro looks at me, then shakes his head. "Nevermind. We need you on interference. Keep the other two off Mai and me… Kami that feels weird to say. The alliteration is strong - Mai and me." he blew a raspberry.

"Can he do that? Fight off what is essentially _two jounin_ while we focus on the other one?"

"Normal circumstances, the answer to that question would be a resounding ' _No,'_ but these aren't normal circumstances." I said getting to my feet.

"What's different?" Mai asked.

"All I need is one hit." I replied with an impish grin.

"Big words." I turned around to see the same picture as before: a fist coming at my face.

But I was ready this time. I parried the punch to the side and stepped into her guard in one motion, bringing my right hand up and activating the seal on my palm. A shuriken flew out at point blank range, tearing through the clone as it tried to block a punch that was significantly sharper than it was expecting.

"I can back it up." I said, stepping back and cracking my knuckles. "One down."

"Neat trick," another clone speaks up, "It won't work twice, though."

"It doesn't need to." I replied, still grinning.

"What the _fuck_ just happened?" Mai asked.

"Doesn't matter. I'm waiting on you, Mai." Shiro interjects.

"Clone was expecting a punch, so it tried to block. I stabbed it instead."

"... What?"

"Don't worry about it, and just attack one of them already!" Shiro was getting impatient. I could tell.

"Sheesh, alright, alright." Mai charged one of the clones.

"Thank you!" Shiro yelled. Seriously, what the hell kind of Nara is this impatient?

Shiro ran after Mai, tossing the odd shuriken at the clone, forcing it to dodge or parry when it would have otherwise attacked Mai.

That's about when the other clone tried to bypass me all together, and went straight for Shiro.

Rude.

I jumped between it and my teammate, directing the force of its kick to the side. It followed up with a punch aimed at my gut, but I redirected that as well. It was obvious that the clones dumbed down their speed for the test. There was no way in hell I was good enough to have a real taijutsu bout with a jounin. That was when I stepped into its guard and brought my right hand up in the same way as before. The clone did what I thought it would do, and jumped back and away to avoid the projectile.

"Yay! I got my personal space back!" I cheered.

"Taichi, catch!"

I turn around and grab a spool of thick ninja wire out of the air, and tuck it into my pouch. "Thanks, Shiro!" I yelled, then turned back to the clone, "Now where were we?"

The clone cocked an eyebrow at me.

"My turn then?"

No answer.

"My turn then." I said, pulling out a kunai.

I pumped my legs full of chakra and sprinted at the clone, firing off a couple shuriken on the way.

The clone sidestepped my first slash and kick combo, but made the mistake of dodging into my shadow, where it immediately froze.

"Shadow pos-" I stabbed it. "-session complete." Poof. "Damn it, Taichi. At least let me finish the line before you go stab-happy."

"Hell no." I reply and jump past him so I can help Mai, who just got decked in the gut.

"What took you so long?" Mai asked, coughing and clutching her stomach as I help her off the ground.

"Oh you know, stuff." I replied, smirking.

"Stuff?"

"And things." I shrugged.

"...Right. Well can we pop this one already? I'm tired."

"You guys are just full of surprises." The clone said, then turned to Shiro, "You kept one end of that wire that you threw to Taichi, then sent your shadow along the wire to Taichi, trapping the clone, right?"

Shiro sighed. "If I say 'No' will you fall for it again?"

"Anyway!" Mai interjects, "Can you hurry up and pop? I want to go home."

"How about I kick this up a notch instead?" The clone asks, "I want to see what else you guys come up with."

"No thanks," Shiro says, "I'm good."

In a flash, the wire between Shiro and me was cut, and he was kicked towards the tree line. Then Mai and me came under fire. Literally.

"Fire Release: Scorching Burst." A wave of fire burst in all directions around the clone, blowing us back a few meters and singeing my clothes. I had a feeling that if the clone dumped any more chakra into that, we would have been incinerated.

It didn't stop there though. The clone pounced on Mai as she was trying to regain her feet, grabbing her and slamming her back into the ground. Mai screamed as I heard something snap.

Fucking shit! What did this lady think she was doing? This was supposed to be a _test!_

"Mai!" Shiro yelled, coming back into the fray, throwing a few shuriken, only to be grabbed by the collar, lifted up, and slammed into the ground like had been done to Mai.

"Shiro!" I screamed, I had been running towards them the whole time, but that all happened in less than a second. There was no way I could have gotten there in time.

I pull up short, "OK, bitch. The fuck are you playing at?"

"That's no way to talk to your sensei, brat."

"You're not my sensei yet, you psychotic fuck." I growl.

She stares at me. "We're going to have to fix that mouth of yours." She flashed from view, only to appear at my side, punting me into a tree.

It took me less than a second to clear my head, but she was already in front of me, aiming a _much_ faster punch at my face and I didn't have time to dodge.

The tree broke as I flew through it, only saving myself from severe damage with chakra enhancement.

"That would have killed nearly any other fresh graduate, kid." The clone said emotionlessly. "That's slightly impressive."

Was she seriously trying to kill me? Kami damn it. I picked myself off the ground, nursing what was probably a fractured everything. Work through the pain, Taichi.

"So that's how we're playing this? Alright." I closed my eyes and focused a bit, releasing my gravity seal. The preceding burst of chakra was absolutely _massive._ Hot damn. I knew I was building that up for five years, but that just obliterated every tree around me. I would need at least a week or two before I could produce enough chakra to fill it back up again.

I looked a shocked clone in the eyes, "Lets dance, bitch."

My form blurred as I rushed her at a speed she was totally not expecting. My first punch nearly landed, but was knocked away at the last second. I parried the next kick and punch sent my way, latching onto the clone's arm in the process and _pulled._ Using the opening, I moved inside her guard and fired a few shuriken from my projectile seal - point blank.

The log that they pelted into indicated that she used a Kawarimi.

The couple hundred shuriken that rained down around me indicated something else.

 _You want to play the Kawarimi game? I can play the Kawarimi game._

A puff of smoke later, and the clone _definitely_ wasn't expecting it when she was suddenly getting pelted by the shuriken that she just threw. She parried a few before getting enough of a pause to body-flicker out of there, which was where I pounced with a spinning ball of blue chakra aimed right at her stupid face.

I knew I only needed a small cut or something to pop the fucking thing, but damned if it wouldn't be satisfying to land this hit.

I didn't though.

The next thing I knew I was on my back, staring at the sky.

And Kami did everything hurt. I didn't even _see_ how she kicked my ass.

"... Shit." I heard the clone mumble.

Then the world faded to black.

* * *

 **A/N**

I am _proud_ of this chapter. Sorry that it's about the same length as usual; I was going to put more into it, but that was just a _perfect_ place to end it.

We're getting to the point where stuff is much more fun to write about, so hopefully I can stick to a faster update speed. I make no promises though.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.**

Please **do not** shove insults up my ass. I'm running out of ass related jokes, _butt_ I might be able to pull off a dumb dad joke.

...Sorry.

 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**

Short one again, but the next one's going to be long… Or at least _longer_. I had to build the scene correctly.

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

 **Hokage's Office**

A _lot_ of people had been angry at Hiruzen Sarutobi over the course of his life. He had personally slaughtered more enemy shinobi in battle than any living person could even hope to get near. He had faced down everything from the common bandit to foreign Kage on their own soil. He had even helped fight down the strongest of the Bijuu _inside of his own village_ and lived to tell about it.

The Third Hokage had experienced all of that, and even the _utter hatred and rage-_ filled environment during the Kyubi attack didn't hold a candle to the amount of fear the woman in front of him elicited.

"Tell me again how my son ended up in the hospital, Hokage-sama." That wasn't a request. It was an order.

"Now, Tomo. Please don't do anything rash." His throat felt dry. He could take the woman if she went insane, but it would _not_ be worth the collateral damage.

"Sarutobi-san." Her eyes bored into his.

"Training accidents happen all the time," He continued, "It's not uncommon in the least."

"Hiruzen." Her voice sounded dead. Almost sing-song-y, but _oh so very_ serious. "I was making dinner yesterday, only for Shiro Nara's mother to come knocking at my door, wondering why I hadn't been to the hospital yet." She paused. " _To see my son."_ The Third Hokage could _feel_ his eyes burning from the direct gaze of Tomo Yamanaka. "She was worried that nobody had told me - and was right, of course."

Hiruzen's mouth opened to respond, but was cut off.

"Now if it was just that, I don't think it would have warranted a visit to your _esteemed self."_ Hiruzen couldn't tell if that was sarcastic or what, but it was most definitely not meant as a compliment.

"However when I arrived, I found my _baby boy_ in intensive surgery for a spinal injury, as well as over _sixty-three_ broken bones." Hiruzen winced. "And that was only what was left to fix _after_ _four hours_ of him being in there." His eyes widened. _Niashi, you better hope this kid recovers fully and quickly. There is no way I'm protecting you from a livid Uzumaki._

"I wasn't aware that the damage was so severe, Tomo-san. It was indeed very irresponsible of Niashi-san to take her test as far as she did. I will make sure that this _never_ happens again. Let me assure you."

The Yamanaka mother narrowed her eyes at the Hokage. "Good." Then she turned around and left.

CRASH

As soon as she closed the door behind her, four bodies fell from the ceiling tiles into the office, one landing directly onto his desk. He was half convinced it was an attack, until he noticed that the body was unconscious.

It was one of his ANBU guards.

That set him off even more. Who had the ability to knock out _four_ of his ANBU without him even noticing?

Then it hit him: Tomo Yamanaka and Jiraya were the ones to make the fuinjutsu defences in his office. She had probably manipulated them somehow, knocking all of the ANBU out cold.

He looked up at the door that she just left through. That woman had helped make defenses for the _entire village._

He stood up abruptly and slapped the ANBU on his desk awake.

The ANBU jumped off the desk and into a combat stance, taking stock of the situation, only to find The Third staring at him. "Hokage-sama?"

"Get me Niashi Fukumi. _Now._ "

* * *

 **Taichi**

Ugh, my head hurt.

My arms hurt.

My legs hurt.

Actually, fucking _everything_ hurt.

"You got me in trouble." Someone said, apparently noticing that I was awake.

I turn my head to find Niashi-sensei standing next to my bed. _Hospital_ bed _._

 _Ugh._

I blink. "Sorry?" I blinked again. "Wait, no I'm not. You broke every bone in my body!" I sat up slowly. Agony, everywhere.

"Oh shut up. You only died like four times on the operating table."

"F-four times?! What the _fuck!?_ You're a total psychopath! Who let you teach kids?!"

She waved it off, like I was asking her if she'd gotten the milk at the grocery store. "You're still here, aren't you?"

I level a deadpan stare at her. This lady had to be ex-ANBU or something. They were known for treating every injury like a paper-cut.

"Anyway, I never got to go over the test with you. I already talked with the other two a couple days ago."

Ah shit, that's right. I never popped the last clone. Wait… A couple _days ago?_ How long was I out?

"You all passed." She said blandly. "We're meeting every day at Training Ground Thirty-Three at seven A.M."

"Wait what?" I asked. "We passed? Why? I couldn't pop the last clone."

She shrugged. "You guys passed pretty much right after you took down the second clone. The teamwork was pretty damn good, and that was all I was looking for. The third clone just wanted to see what else it could get out of you."

"Huh."

"I have a question though."

"Yeah?" I was a bit blown away by the fact that we passed.

"Where did you learn the Rasengan?"

Ahh shit, I forgot I used that. Oh well, it was going to get out at some point. "I taught it to myself."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Really?" She didn't believe me.

I shrugged. "Yeah. I've been trying to get ahold of new and fancy chakra control exercises for as long as I could use my own supply. It just so happened that I'd read about the Fourth's spinning ball of destruction at one point. I figured that it was the perfect new control exercise, so I tried to recreate it." I held my hand out, and a ball of blue chakra formed.

"Just like that?" She said, incredulous.

"Hell no. It took like two years to get this thing down." I confessed with a frown, "I didn't have the control necessary until six or seven months ago."

She stared at me for a good minute. "You do know that's an A-rank jutsu right?"

"Literally the _only_ thing I do in my spare time is work on my chakra control. It's fun for me." I said, a little put out. I mean, I trained my chakra like Lee trained his body: all the damn time… Actually, now that I thought about it, _I_ trained _my_ body like Lee trained his body. That gravity seal is kind of awesome.

I sighed.

"What?" She asked.

"I'm going to have to fill up my gravity seal again. That's going to suck."

Recognition shined in her eyes, "Is that what that chakra burst was? How long have you been building that thing up?"

"About… five years-ish."

She just stared at me…

And stared…

Still staring…

This was unnerving. "What?"

"Kami, kid. You're ridiculous."

"Taichi! You awake yet?!" Mai burst through the door, arm in a sling.

Shiro walked in after her, his hands in his jacket pockets.

Sensei had already shunshined out of there. Of course.

"Hey guys. What'd I miss?"

* * *

The only thing good about being stuck in the hospital for over a week was that I could dump nearly all the chakra I produced into my gravity seal. I just made sure to keep enough in my system so that I could keep working on my control. I managed to fill it back up on my last day there.

It was kind of funny when the nurses came in to check on me, thinking that I'd run away, only to look up and see me meditating on the ceiling.

All the other recent graduates were neck-deep in D-rank missions, and we were seriously lagging behind. So I was kind of surprised when Sensei told us she'd slotted the next month for just training.

So that's how we found ourselves in Training Ground Thirty-Three.

"But what am I going to do about my rent?" Mai asked worriedly. Mai was one of the many orphans from the Kyubi attack, and her monthly stipend cut out when she graduated, so she had to earn her keep.

"Hmm… I don't think you guys really need to subject yourself to them. Their whole point is to build teamwork, but from what I saw, you guys have a pretty good dynamic." She paused. "But I suppose we can do a few D-ranks for money purposes." Sensei turned towards Shiro and me. "Would you guys mind too much if we gave the lion's share of the earnings to Mai so we can train a bit more?" We shake our heads in the negative. We both had it pretty well off. Spending money would be nice, but neither of us really had too much use for it.

"You'd do that? For me?" Mai's eyes moistened up, surprised and hopeful. Shiro and I look at eachother, then nod, a little confused.

Mai glomped us both, all teary-eyed. "Thank you." She all but whispered.

Wow, she was really worried about making rent. I suppose I would be too, having to support myself at twelve years old and getting kicked out my house would suck.

I managed to wrestle free after a minute or so, but Shiro seemed content with the girl in his arms.

Huh.

"So~o," Sensei begins, interrupting the moment, "I wanted to start you three on the tree climbing exercise. Standard procedure, but I have a feeling that it might just bore some of you." She glared half-heartedly at me. "So why don't you two," she gestured at Mai and Shiro, "tell me where you are control-wise, so we can work with that." Then she looked at me, made the Tiger seal, and a clone popped into existence. "Then my clone here can go help Taichi work on… something."

"Sounds good to me." I shrug.

* * *

"So you already have amazing chakra control, your speed and strength are comparable to mid-chunin, you're a fuinjutsu master, and you're a snarky little twit." The clone said once we'd gotten far enough away from the others.

"Hey, I'm ten. I'm supposed to be little."

She huffed air out of her nose in a sort of half-laugh. "Well I'll take suggestions if you want to learn anything in particular, but otherwise I was just going to start you on nature transformation."

"Can I ask to learn anything?"

"Well as long as I know how to do it, and it's not totally out of the range of your abilities, sure."

Good. "Can you teach me the Shadow Clone?"

Her eyes locked onto mine. "Kid, what did I just say?"

"I heard you. I know why it's restricted to jounin. Trust me when I say that I have enough chakra for it."

She kept up her skeptical gaze, "Sorry if I don't believe you."

I sighed. "OK, how about this." I hold my hand out and spawn a Rasengan. "How chakra-intensive do you think this is?"

Her eyes focused on the ball of destruction. "Ah."

"Yeah." This little thing took up a metric shit-ton of chakra. I could only really use it two or three times before going totally dry.

The jutsu ranking system went off of two characteristics: control necessary, and chakra cost. Simply by virtue of being an A-rank jutsu meant that the Rasengan was more chakra intensive than the Shadow Clone Jutsu: a B-rank jutsu.

The Shadow Clone was actually an incredibly _easy_ to do jutsu, apparently. The control required was almost like breathing, but the chakra cost was enough to boost it into B-rank territory. This made a lot of sense if you thought about Naruto's innate lack of chakra control, but was still able to use it.

Basically, it was generally true that any given genin wouldn't be able to fire off anything above C-rank. They simply didn't have the chakra to pull it off.

 _Wait, but Taichi, how did the Fourth bounce around spamming the damn thing, then? He didn't have a chakra monster inside him like Naruto._

Well, when I was finally able to use the jutsu, I noticed something interesting: It didn't take any extra chakra to sustain. It would stick around for as long as you could concentrate on keeping it's shape. So the Fourth was bouncing around with the _same_ Rasengan. He only used the jutsu once per battle.

"So, Shadow Clone?"

She sighed, "Fine."

* * *

 **A/N**

That whole thing about the Rasengan not costing anything to keep around is canon, by the way. I pulled that right off of the wiki.

Also, let me say right here that if anyone thinks Naruto's control got much better when he started using the Rasengan, I would like to say that it probably got a _little_ better, but he still had to use clones to compensate for his _lack of control._ So yes, it requires a _lot_ of control to use the technique. Naruto just cheated.

OK, now that this one's done, I can start writing the _fun_ chapter. *Evil laughter*

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.**

Please **do not** shove insults up my ass. I may be a kinky bastard, but… actually that might turn me on too. Spank my ass and call me Susan. *Wiggle*

 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N**

This is long as hell compared to my other chapters. Don't get used to it, but I'll try to keep increasing the general length as I go. It's been hovering around 2.5k words, pushing 3k as I go. This one is double that. Wooo!

I warned you about this back in chapter 4. This will not be happy-fun-times.

Warning: Gore and other fucked up things. I don't want to ruin anything here, so if you think you'll get triggered by something, I'll leave a small summary you can skip to at the ending author's note. There will be something in bold telling you to skip when the bad stuff is about to happen.

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

"That is one _ugly_ cat." Mai said.

"Just hurry up and grab it. I can't hold this forever." Shiro complained.

"Oh, shut up. You can hold it for at least a few minutes. There's no real rush." Mai retorted.

"It's a cat, not a person." I piped up. "He could probably hold it for a couple hours."

"Not helping, Taichi."

Mai walked over and picked up the cat, letting Shiro drop his Shadow Possession.

"Lets take him back." She said. Only for the it to claw his way out of her hold and dart away into the forest. "OW! What the _fuck!_ "

"Shit! After it!" Shiro yelled.

I sighed. It had taken the better part of the day to _find_ Tora, let alone capture it.

The cat weaved in and out of the foliage, looking over his shoulder every once in a while to see if we were still chasing him.

We were.

The chase lasted another ten minutes. Full of this fucking ninja cat jumping off of trees and shit.

It only ended when I got fed up, rushed it, and punted it into a tree.

Fucking ninja cats.

"Taichi!" Mai screeched.

"What?"

"Why the hell did you do _that!?"_

"This is a Kami-damned waste of time. I hope I broke something so it can't run anymore."

"I hope it's dead, honestly." Shiro mumbled.

Mai sputtered, trying to find words to say, but it only coming out in a meaningless, angry jumble.

Shiro walked over and picked up the broken cat. "It's alive."

"Hn." I sounded, disappointed.

* * *

The Hokage sighed, looking at the whining creature on his desk. "It was bound to happen at some point." He looked me in the eyes, "What made you think that hurting this creature was a good idea?"

"I… _Tora,_ here, was a bit of a recurring nuisance. I figured that if it couldn't run away in the first place, that it would stop being a problem." I paused, "Also, the mission parameters didn't specify that he needed to be unharmed. Just returned."

The Hokage opened his mouth, then closed it. "Well…" He blinked a few times, then just sighed. "Mission complete, I guess." He tapped his pipe on the corner of his desk. "Dismissed."

We turned around to leave.

"And Taichi," I turned back. "Don't do that again." He leveled a stare at me.

I gulped, then nodded.

* * *

That was our last D-rank. After the first couple, Sensei never went with us. She said that we could handle it, and she had better stuff to do with her time than painting fences.

We'd completed about ten missions in the past month so that Mai could pay her rent, but the rest of the time, we'd been training almost non-stop.

So it was kind of surprising when Sensei showed up at Training Ground Thirty-Three with a mission scroll.

"Sensei, my rent's covered for now, we don't need another mission." Mai said, noticing the scroll.

"It's been a month. I think you guys are ready for a C-rank." She held up the scroll, showing us the light-blue trim that indicated its rank.

Shiro sighed, "Can we not? I don't really want to camp out if I can avoid it."

I punched him. " _Ow!_ Kami _damn it,_ Taichi!"

"Oh shut up. What's the mission, Sensei?"

"Just a simple outpost delivery." She said.

"Well, let's get to it!" Mai pumped.

* * *

 **Fucked Up Shit - Inbound.**

* * *

"Are we there yet?" Mai whined. We'd been traveling all day. All three days hence, actually.

"It's just over that hill. So shut up." Niashi-sensei said, pointing to a small rise in the road.

We had to walk the last stretch to the outpost. Procedure was to not spook the watchmen. They tend to think that anything running around them meant trouble, so they would raise the alarm pretty quickly. I suppose you get pretty jaded when you're out here for hours on end this secluded.

"Is that smoke?" Shiro asked.

Sure enough, as we came around a few trees, we saw smoke billowing into the sky.

"Is that the outpost?" Mai asked

As the building - or something that _used_ to be a building - came into view, all of our breaths caught.

It looked like a bloody tornado tore through the outpost. Four bodies laid broken and battered on the forest floor, steeping in pools of their own blood. All were missing limbs that could be found hanging from nearby trees, or in the surrounding foliage.

A fifth body was _harpooned_ to the broken wall of the outpost with a support beam. Blood splattered all across the wall and ground as it dripped from the beam and fire licked from the body as if it were covered in oil, her skin falling off in burning patches. The dead kunoichi's face was frozen in a soulless scream, and her clothes were in complete tatters. I couldn't tell if it was the fire, or a fight beforehand that caused it.

There was not a single clean kill.

Shiro lost his lunch.

"Sensei…" Mai started, slack-jawed and terrified.

Niashi-sensei was already on guard, surveying the area. "Make camp. Set traps. I'm going to poke around." She left a clone with us as she dashed off towards the broken outpost.

I looked at the clone, "Shouldn't we be sticking together? What if the guys who did this are still around?"

"Yeah." Sensei's clone said, but didn't elaborate. It was like she didn't even hear me as she stared at the carnage in front of us.

I sighed, then dragged my teammates off the path and into the trees to make camp.

It took us about an hour to trap the surrounding area, while Sensei's clone kept guard. Sensei herself wasn't back yet, but the fact that the clone was still there meant that nothing had happened to her. I hoped.

"This was supposed to be a C-rank, right?" Shiro asked as he walked to where I was cooking up a rabbit by the fire.

I laughed. "Yeah. I wonder if this counts as us failing the mission?" There was no more outpost to deliver orders to.

"With our luck, probably." Mai said sulkily, curled up by the fire. She was looking forward to the increased pay.

"Extenuating circumstances like these," Sensei's clone waved her hand, indicating the current predicament, "usually call for an increase in mission rank - not failure." She paused, "If handled correctly."

"But the original goal of the mission is irrelevant at this point." Shiro pointed out, "So how do we go about 'handling it correctly'?"

"You just have to salvage the situation." Sensei responded. "In this case, we just need to figure out what happened. Higher ranked shinobi would be expected to hunt down the perpetr-" the clone popped.

"Finally! Those bastards took their time dealing with the jounin. I was getting tired of waiting." A female voice said from the trees above us.

"Why did we even bother trapping the area?" Shiro sighed. I could tell he was freaking out on the inside, despite the cool exterior.

"What did you do to Sensei!?" Mai yelled.

A kunoichi with an crossed out Iwa headband dropped down from the trees into view. "Don't you worry your pretty little head about that. She won't be able to help you." She flicked her hair.

Wait, how did Sensei's clone _not_ notice that we were being watched?

"What do you want?" I asked, pulling out a kunai.

She turned her head to look at me, and smiled.

SQUELCH

That just came from… No.

"Shiro!" Mai screams.

I turn towards the sound just in time to see another Iwa nuke-nin charging me with a tanto. I parried the blade, but the preceding punch came too fast for me to dodge, knocking me back a few meters. This guy was at least a chunin, and… and…

My thought process died at the sight in front of me. A head was rolling along the ground, leaking blood in the dirt.

THUD

The body it had been attached to collapsed to the ground.

The head rolled to a stop, letting me get a good look at the face.

Shiro.

Shiro's head… but his body was over… There.

But he was…

Shiro was…

Dead?

"Shiro!" Mai sounded as hysterical as I felt. "Shiro! No! Not-" Her breath caught and she looked at the guy with the tanto. "You _bastard!"_ Tears started to fall.

"Aww, isn't that sweet?" The Iwa kunoichi said. "I think the little girl liked him."

I look at Tanto-Guy, "You… just killed my best friend." My voice was empty. My thoughts were jumbled. I was in shock, really.

He looked at me. "So?"

 _SNAP_

I was almost positive that nothing actually made a noise, but _something_ in me broke right then.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw another Iwa nin jump out of the brush right at me. I guess he figured that we were both too emotionally unstable to notice him.

He was wrong.

I released my gravity seal. The built up chakra burst into the atmosphere just like it had when I'd faced Niashi-sensei. Everything in the surroundings was blown back or obliterated. The camp-fire was snuffed as the logs flew out of the clearing, plunging everything into darkness, and all of our camping equipment crashed into the foliage.

The world became clear, even in the darkness. With a flash, I spun and rushed the idiot who tried to attack me. He had been blown back by the burst as well, but managed to regain a stance enough to throw a few shuriken. I raised my right hand and used the secondary activation of my projectile seal, sucking in the shuriken. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't used this in battle yet. Then my fist collided with his face, plowing him into the ground before anyone could react.

"Eye for an eye." I said, swiping my kunai across his jugular, spraying blood everywhere.

We all watched as the light left his eyes.

"Yasuo!" The kunoichi screeched, completely surprised at my speed.

"Oh? Was he important?" I asked blandly. "Sorry."

"That was my _brother,_ you shitstain!"

I stared her directly in the eyes, "So?"

That wasn't very smart of me, in hindsight. She was definitely high chunin judging by the speed and power of the next confrontation. In comparison, her brother was a kitten.

She wasn't anywhere near as fast as Sensei, but she was still faster than me. And stronger.

Then there was a force that seemed to increase gravity two-fold. Fear welled up inside of me for no real reason I could put my finger on. I just wanted to run, to be anywhere from here, but my seething rage overpowered it. Was this killing intent?

She came at me like a freight train, sending punches and kicks that I could barely follow. Not giving me any opportunity to send some back her way.

The Flowing Lotus style was almost purely defensive, mainly focusing on diverting attacks away from the user. There was not a single way to _block_ a hit in the style. They were all different ways to parry, then jump inside your opponent's guard and fire off something debilitating.

It was a _counter-attack_ style, but even in almost mastering it, I couldn't keep up with the bitch in front of me.

I managed to jump away, giving myself a little respite, where I crossed my hands in the Tiger seal, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Four clones popped into existence and took off towards the kunoichi.

Mai had been doing alright facing off with the other Iwa nuke-nin. He was still better than her, but it seemed that he focused more on assassination techniques than direct combat, letting Mai hold her own at least a little.

My clones were able to hold off the kunoichi without popping, which surprised me, honestly. It looked like they had her on her back leg, making it so she didn't have time to dish out an attack.

I rushed to help Mai.

In the last month of training, we had worked out a system: Mai would focus on attacking and dealing as much damage as she could, while Shiro would focus on defence; throwing shuriken or his shadow out to keep Mai's opponent from attacking back. My job was interference; keeping all other factors from messing with their combo. With my shadow clones, I could reliably keep a number of opponents at bay while I defended them both and drew attention. It was an ad-hoc strategy during the test with Sensei, but we found that it worked wonderfully for us if we had to engage in a direct fight.

Now though, Mai didn't have Shiro as backup.

"Raaaahhhhgg!" Mai was going berserk, discarding any sense of defence.

She flung herself at Tanto-Guy in a fisted rage, but it didn't seem that he was having too much trouble blocking her and swiping with his tanto every once in a while. She was totally outclassed and didn't seem to care as she became more and more injured.

That guy _had_ to die.

I never got close enough to help, though. I had tunnel vision on the bastard that killed my best friend.

I felt two of my clones pop, "Earth Release: Pebble Barrage!" The kunoichi yelled.

Small rocks pummeled me from behind; tearing through my legs and lower back, making me stumble and fall to the ground.

On the ground for a few seconds, I noticed that I couldn't move my legs. I couldn't _feel_ my legs.

We were two genin fighting off two chunin. By all accounts, we were screwed from the beginning.

My vision turned to Mai, just in time to see Tanto-Guy kick her into the ground. Further fueling my hatred for him.

My last two clones popped.

Then something blunt hit me over the head, and I knew no more.

* * *

"What do you mean she _got away?!"_

"Careful Masuyo. I don't care _who_ your father is; you will not talk to me like that."

I started to come-to. My head hurt like a motherfucker, same with my legs.

Well that was good news at least: I could feel my legs again.

I opened my eyes, slowly, to find that we were in a cave that looked like it had been made by Earth jutsu. I was sitting up against the back wall with my arms chained to it. To my left, I saw Mai in a similar position. She was out cold, but I could still see her breathing.

The kunoichi that attacked us, apparently named Masuyo, scoffed, but backed down. "How are we going to do this then? If she books it back to Konoha, we can't complete the mission."

Mission? Weren't these guys nuke-nin?

"She was significantly stronger than our intel suggested. She managed to kill Raiden and Shou before she fled. She's hardly in any condition to run anywhere with all the damage we did. Honestly, she's probably bleeding out on the forest floor somewhere." The new guy said dismissively.

Wait, they had intel on us?

There were four Iwa nin in the cave, two of which looked to be jounin, and the other two were Masuyo and Tanto-Guy.

"He's awake." Tanto-Guy said, lazily. I was going to rip his head off. Slowly.

"Oh?" Masuyo began, walking over to me, "Well hello, there. You woke up sooner than I expected." Ok scratch that. I wasn't going to rip Tanto-Guy's head off. I was going to rip _her_ head off, and shove it up Tanto-Guy's dick hole.

I just stared at her.

She slapped me. _Hard._ "That high-and-mighty shit won't get you anywhere here. We _were_ just going to kill you, but happy circumstances ensured that I would have time to play with you." She said, sing-songly.

"Kinky." I smiled, "I've never done anything like this before." I wiggled my arms to shake the chains that connected me to the wall. "I'm not really one for bondage-play, but how about we switch? I think I might like being the dominant."

The jounin from before snorted. "Kid, you're ten."

How did he know that?

"Hey, she came on to m-Aaagh!" I was cut off when Masuyo stomped on my knee, shattering my kneecap, and bending my leg the wrong way. I take it back. Feeling my legs again was _not_ a good thing.

"That's enough of that." The sadistic fuck-ette smiled and leaned in close. "You're alive because we need information." She paused, " _That,_ and the fact that I'm going to make you suffer for killing my brother."

"We're on _this shit_ again?" I asked through clenched teeth. "The fucker over there with the tanto killed my best friend." I turn to look at him. "Speaking of, I'm going to rip your dick off and shove it down this bitch's throat like it's her favorite dild-" She clamped her hand around my neck.

"We'll talk again later." She said, eye twitching. "Good night." Then she slammed my head against the wall, and the world went dark for the second time.

* * *

 _Ugh._ I really need to stop antagonizing people.

When I came to this time around, I was alone in the cave. Mai wasn't even chained up to the wall, but there was a solid trail of blood from where she had been to the entrance of the cave.

That worried me. A lot. I already lost Shiro. I didn't know if I could take losing Mai as well, but my brain wasn't working at full capacity, so it was a little difficult to worry about it. Concussion?

I could feel the caked up blood on my neck that probably came from the wound on the back of my head. It had seeped through the back of my shirt, making it all crusty, and stiff.

I was pretty sure that the chains that connected me to the wall had chakra locks on them, so escape was almost impossible.

I was tired, my leg was broken, I had a concussion, both of my best friends were probably dead, Sensei was M.I.A., and they were almost certainly going to kill me.

My eyelids started to droop, and my head nodded forward.

I was right. I didn't even last as long as I did in my last life. Dead at ten.

Kind of pathetic.

Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

"Taichi!" Someone whispered harshly. "Taichi, wake up!"

"Huh?" I opened my eyes slowly to find Mai over me, shaking my shoulder.

Oh thank Kami she was alright!

"Are you OK?" She asked, worriedly looking over my injuries.

"Yeah." I said, then winced as I remembered the damage I'd gone through. "Wait, where did those Iwa nin go?"

She shook her head. "I'm not sure. I woke up just a few minutes ago and they weren't here." She looked into my eyes. "I think you might have a concussion." She held up three fingers. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three." She nodded.

"Um… Okay now what's my dad's name?" She asked.

I faltered. "Uh Mai, you're an orphan."

Something, I couldn't tell what, shined in her eyes. She nodded, "Good, you seem functioning, at least."

"I… Mai, I'm sorry… about Shiro..." I said slowly "I know you two had gotten close and-" My voice caught and my eyes started to water. I'd just lost the best friend I'd had in this life.

"Shh," she placed her hand on my shoulder, "It'll all be fine." I couldn't bring myself to look her in the eyes, opting instead to stare at the far wall.

"Hey, Taichi." She began, "Tell me a story."

"A story?"

"Yeah, about Shiro. You were his best friend."

I looked up at her, "Sure, but… Shouldn't we get out of here first?"

She looked disappointed. "Don't worry, they won't be back for a while."

I narrowed my eyes, "What makes you say that?"

"I heard them talking before they left. They said they went looking for Sensei."

Wait a minute, "I thought you said that you didn't know where they went?" I looked at her fully for the first time. "Hold on… How did you get out of your chains? Where are all the wounds I saw on you earlier?" It was true, she was spotless… "Why haven't you untied me yet?"

She clicked her tongue. "Don't worry about tha-"

"Mai, what the _fuck_ is going on?" I cut her off.

"Fine! Kami _damn_ it!" She screamed. "Kai!" I felt the world shimmer slightly. Genjutsu?

Mai's face melted away, revealing an incredibly annoyed Masuyo. She was fishing for information, then? The real Mai had also been hidden by that genjutsu, and was still tied up to the wall beside me and fully conscious, only now she was curled up in a bloody ball, quietly sobbing and looking totally haggard.

"Mai!" She didn't answer. "Mai!" I tried again, and her head twitched to the side looking at me.

"Tai...chi?" I'd been chained to the wall less than five feet from her for who-knows-how-long, so _how_ did she not know I was there? Another genjutsu?

"Mai. It's me…" I turned to the sadistic fuck-ette, "What did you do to her?!"

She shrugged, enjoying the show. "I just asked her a few questions. I didn't like most of the answers."

Most? Shit.

"So I tried the nice way with you, but you caught on pretty quick, so I guess normal methods will have to do." She smiled ferally.

I swallowed the saliva in my mouth.

"So this is how it's going to go," She said, "You're going to tell me what I want to know, or you're going to start losing things." She grabbed my right hand from where it was chained to the wall. I couldn't even activate my projectile seal for a surprise attack. She'd taken all of my equipment.

Oh, and the cuffs were definitely locking my chakra away.

I growled.

"So, tell me about the Yamanaka." How the _fuck_ did she know I was a-... Mai. Right.

I spat in her face. Or at least tried. She dodged it. Then she snapped my finger along the knuckle, and started to twist it. Slowly. Grinding the now shattered bones into dust.

I screamed.

"None of _that,_ now." She said blandly, letting go of the limp, boneless digit, and grabbing hold of its neighbor.

"Lets try a more specific question: How do you block a Yamanaka from getting anything from your head?"

I was apparently panting in pain for too long. Long enough for her to grow impatient and _rip_ off the next finger, leaving blood spouting from the base.

My screams were muffled with a hand covering my mouth.

"Please answer my questions in a timely manner." She said, smiling.

"Fuck." I said through clenched teeth and watery eyes, "You."

SQUELCH

Was that my… arm?

"See, I think you're missing something here." She said, then laughed. "Besides your arm, of course. Let me say it again: You're going to tell me what I want to know, or you're going to start losing things."

The pain didn't hit me right away. I was staring at my newly lost appendage, hanging from the chain that had held me against the wall. It was an arm.

Was it… _my…_ arm? I looked down at where it had previously been attached and found a bloody mess of a stump, cut off at what used to by my bicep.

Then the screaming started anew. Pain on a level I'd never experienced before assaulted my senses. Somewhere in the back of my mind registered the sadistic fuck-ette trying to muffle my screams and get me to answer a question, but no matter what she did, the pain and shock of losing an arm over-ruled everything, along with the blood loss.

I don't think she calculated just how much pain she could cause me consistently, because it only took a few minutes of screaming myself raw for the world to go black once more.

* * *

I woke up staring at the ceiling of the cave. With only one chain keeping me attached to the wall, I apparently now had enough clearance to lay down, which I didn't have when I had both arms.

The fact that I woke up at all kind of surprised me. I wouldn't have thought that they would care enough to keep me from bleeding out, but no, my new stump was neatly cauterized, and seemingly pulsing in pure pain.

Finally having a few seconds to myself to think, I realized that I was _starving._

How long had I been chained to a wall in this cave? A day or two? Couldn't have been longer than three.

I just jinxed myself, didn't I?

I didn't want to move and alert the other occupants of the cave of my regained consciousness, so I just laid there with my eyes closed.

After a while, I started to fall asleep to the sound of Mai quietly sobbing next to me. The death of Shiro, my loss of limb, copious blood loss, agonizing hunger, and sheer exhaustion prevented me from offering any form of aid to my female teammate. I could barely think straight, dealing with the pain all throughout my body, to the point where I didn't even register that _someone else_ could suffer this too.

Before I could fall asleep; however, an explosion sounded at the cave entrance.

I looked up just in time to see and enraged Niashi-sensei plow right through whatever defences they had set up, and right into Tanto-Guy, plunging a kunai deep into his eye to the point where you could only see the ring on the back.

The sadistic fuck-ette was next; with a clean decapitation, unfortunately. She'd barely had time to react, it all happened so fast.

One of the jounin jumped in and stabbed his katana into Sensei's back. I was worried for a second, only for Sensei to burst into a cloud of lightning, frying the jounin.

Lightning clone? Holy hell that's awesome.

Two more of Sensei burst into the room, flanking the second jounin into a corner. He managed to pop one of the clones - of the normal, shadow variety - in the following bout, but the other (the real on this time?) melted his face off with a fire jutsu that looked like she was spitting napalm.

"I finally found you." She said, walking over like she had just gotten back from a walk.

"I kind of wish you'd taken your time on the girl. She was a bitch." I said, voice raw for some reason.

She looked Mai and me over, her eyes softening. "... Yeah. Me too."

Tears marred my eyes. "Can we go home now?"

"Yeah." She said lightly, bringing a small slip of paper to my forehead. "Lets get you two back."

Chakra flared in the paper, and I passed out for the umpteenth time.

* * *

 **A/N**

Quick summary for the squeamish:

* * *

 _Taichi, Mai, and Shiro got ambushed by a group of jounin trying to take them hostage, and lure Niashi for capture. Shiro dies in the fight, and they knock out Taichi and Mai after Taichi kills one. They get tortured for information, and Taichi gets his right arm cut off. Then_ _Niashi-sensei finds them and kills the enemy.  
_

* * *

*Nonstop maniacal laughter* Oh, I'm a bastard.

This will most likely be the worst of what I will write. Other stuff might come close, but at least on an individual scale, nothing should get _this_ dark again. And before anyone thinks that the lack of an arm is going to make Taichi's progress slow down, it won't. Well, it _will_ for like a month or so, but he'll use this to his advantage and only get stronger.

Taichi, Shiro, and Mai was a team that could ambush others with the best of them, but being on the receiving end of an ambush is not something that they could deal with. This was their first real battle, and they hadn't really fleshed out a true battle formula for multiple situations. So shit went sour.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.**

Please **do not** shove insults up my ass. It can take the punishment, sure, but I don't give just _anyone_ the clearance to do so.

 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N**

Guest: "Naruto did not cheat with shadow clones he was born with high kage lvl chakra reserves so stop bashing his faults because he is the strongest character"

Answer: Um… Sure… Ok. I'm pretty sure I said that he cheated with the _Rasengan_ , not the Shadow Clone. Remember how he had to use a clone to compensate for some of the rotation of the Rasengan? That was the cheat. The 'real' Rasengan doesn't require a clone. So yeah… hope I cleared that up.

Also, I do not like loud people as a general rule. Naruto is the epitome of that group. Thereby; I do not like Naruto. At least, I don't like _kid_ Naruto. He gets better in Shippuden. If you don't like it when I lightly harp on a character's flaws, feel free to stop reading. I will _not_ target characters to _bash._ I _will_ rant about specific things that pop into my head. Sometimes that includes character flaws.

MrBeaverButtington brought up a good point. I will probably not post any more warnings for any fucked up shit that happens in the story's future. It ruins the pacing, makes it predictable, and is really just a pain in the ass. I rated this shit 'M' for a reason.

I do not own Naruto.

* * *

I woke up staring at a clean, white ceiling.

The hospital room felt like it had been sanitized from the top down. There was a small picture of a boat hanging on the far wall, a large, open window facing the Hokage Monument, the sterile bed that I was laying on, and a machine beeping to my left. My mom was sleeping in a chair in the corner of the room.

I just layed there.

The bed was comfortable at least.

"You woke up." A familiar voice said from the open window.

I looked over to see Sensei eating an apple, squatting on the sill.

I just stared at her for a full minute, neither of us saying anything further.

"How's Mai?" I asked.

"Not good. She's in the psych ward." I guess I could understand that. She'd probably gone through more intensive torture than I had. She seemed conscious for most of it. The sadistic fuck-ette only ripped my arm off.

"Were the Mind-healers able to help?"

"They're working on it." She took a bite out of her apple. "Sometimes the trauma gets a bit too bad to fix. Even for them."

I nodded. It was starting to get easier to deal with bad news. I think it was just the way Sensei phrased all her answers; like "Huh, I forgot to get the milk… Oh well, I'll get it next time." Nothing phased her, so by extension, nothing phased me.

I guess it was just one of those things that only makes sense if you don't think about it.

But then all of that was a lie.

It was so _obviously_ affecting me, that I couldn't even lie to myself and say that the experience made me numb.

I felt numb because I was in emotional shock. I didn't know how to handle what was going on in front of me.

"Malnutrition, loss of limb, laceration and puncture wounds on lower back and legs, slight concussion, and shattered kneecap." Sensei read off my medical chart. I didn't even notice her walking over to pick it up.

I looked down at my stump of a right arm and wiggled it around a bit. That was going to make it hard to do hand seals… and most other things too.

Fuck.

"Most of that was all fixed up when we got here last week." She said to nobody in particular, then mumbled, "Gotta give these docs credit; they work fast." So I'd been in bed for a week.

It seemed like she was ignoring my arm - or lack-thereof.

I wiggled it around some more.

She just stared at me with a 'what the fuck are you doing?' face.

I sighed, then looked to my mom, snoring away. How long had she been there?

"Shiro's dead." I said plainly, still looking at my mom.

Sensei looked up from the chart. "Yeah." She put the chart back. "We have a meeting with the Hokage when you get released. We need to debrief."

"Shiro's _dead."_

"I know."

Neither of us talked for a good minute. "I will murder every Iwa nin I ever see."

Silence.

"That's pretty much standard practice."

More silence.

She turned to leave. "Were you in ANBU?" I asked before she could take a step.

"What makes you say that?" She asked, looking me in the eyes.

"Nothing phases you. At all."

She paused. "I wouldn't say ' _nothing.'_ Your kaa-san is downright terrifying, for one."

* * *

 **In What Used to be Training Ground 27 - One Week Prior**

"What would you say," Tomo Yamanaka began, "was your biggest mistake during that last mission, Niashi-san?"

For some Kami-damned reason, the Hokage had let the Yamanaka into the initial mission debriefing.

"I…" Niashi Fukumi laid broken and bloody in one of the newly formed craters. "I believe it was when I let your son get injured?" _Please don't hurt me._

"See now, that _is_ why we're here, but that wasn't your over-arching failure."

Niashi gulped. "Please… enlighten me, Yamanaka-san."

"Now, now, Niashi-san. How will you ever learn if I just give you the answers?"

"Of course, Yamanaka-san."

Tomo just waved her to continue.

"Um, was it when I left them alone with a clone, and went off to scout the outpost?" _Please don't blow me up again._

"We're getting closer." She sighed. "For someone of your experience, this mistake is elementary." Her eyes hardened and her foot rested on Niashi's chest.

Niashi tried to scream as she was crushed further into the ground, but the air was completely driven out of her lungs.

"Try again, Niashi-san, something more general this time."

Something clicked, "I-" She gasped for air. "I assumed too much?"

A light shined in Tomo's eyes, so she continued. "I assumed that our group hadn't been spotted before I left. I assumed that the enemy wasn't targeting us, but the outpost."

"You assumed that they wouldn't care about a few Genin if a nice, slightly famous jounin was making a target out of herself." Tomo finished, satisfied.

It turned out that the Iwa team had been trying to infiltrate the village by taking over the identities of the genin. Their mission scroll was on one of the dead bodies: a rookie mistake if Niashi had ever seen one. Always burn infiltration mission scrolls once committed to memory. It was a stupid plan to begin with, as it basically required that the Iwa nin hold a henge for weeks, if not months, or years. And they would have to get around the clans. Which you just straight wouldn't be able to do if you were living in the same house. Ninja are paranoid. If you act even a little weird, they'll want to know why. But hey; if Iwa wanted to be stupid, Niashi wasn't going to get in the way.

"Thank you for the spar, Niashi-san." Tomo said, releasing the crushing pressure of her foot, and Body-flickering away.

Niashi looked around from inside the crater and sighed. This was going to be a _really_ long trip to the Hospital.

* * *

 **Taichi**

"You're afraid of Kaa-san?"

"I wouldn't say ' _afraid'_ as much as I would say ' _Oh shit run.'"_

I stared at her for a few seconds. "Was that a joke?"

She sighed.

"Did _you_ just tell a _joke?"_

"Here, take this and stop making fun of me." She tossed me a book and a scroll, then flickered out of the room.

When I looked down at the book, I just stared at the title, wondering what the hell I was supposed to do with this:

 _Beginner's Guide: The Art of Puppetry_

* * *

It took them another week to let me out of the hospital. I don't even know why; I had been fully healed - sans an arm - since I woke up. I think they were expecting me to break down or something.

I visited Mai once, while I was there. She flinched away from any physical contact, and kept flaring her chakra, trying to get rid of a genjutu that wasn't there. It seemed like the Iwa nin did a real number on her.

The one time I talked to her, she started screaming and bawling her eyes out, so the staff asked me to keep a distance for a bit. Apparently she hadn't done that before.

It hurt.

It hurt to see one of my best friends scream and cry just by seeing my face. Just by being in the same room. I hurt her, and I didn't know why.

Uncle Inoichi said that it's best to keep the triggers away during the mind healing process. I, of course, put up a fight. She was my friend, how could I not be there for her?

But in the end, I had to give in. I wasn't a mindwalker. I had no experience with these sorts of things.

So that's how I found myself outside of the hospital. I'd just been released, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Could I continue as a shinobi? My team was in shambles, I'd lost an arm, and Sensei hadn't stopped by to talk to me since I'd woken up.

So I just stood there, outside the hospital, for what seemed like hours.

"What are you doing?"

I turned my head to find Shikamaru coming towards me.

"Not much. Contemplating life." I answered.

He raised an eyebrow.

"What?" I asked.

"Are you alright?" Shika, Choji, and Ino had all come to visit me over the past week. We were all broken up about Shiro, so being in each other's company was a bit of a boon.

"Yeah. As good as I _can_ be, I guess."

"Hn." He glanced at my arm.

"What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Coming to see you, actually. Didn't know they released you."

"Ahh. Wanna go to the Spot?" The Spot was on the roof of a building a few blocks away. It was our default hangout location. It had a few benches, a vending machine, and a weird patch of grass and a tree. _On top of the building._ It was kind of weird, but we liked it.

"You don't have any important _genin_ things to do?" he smirked. I liked to pick on Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji for not graduating yet. Figures he'd turn it on me now.

I wiggled my stump around. "I have a debrief with Hokage-sama at some point, but I have no idea when, so I'm free for now."

He nodded. "The Spot it is, then."

For the next few hours, we could have been found lying in the grass on top of a building, staring up at the clouds passing by. Neither of us talked. We just enjoyed each other's company.

I didn't even try to stop the tears from falling.

* * *

It was the next day that I found myself in the Hokage's office. It was only him and me, for some reason. I'd thought tha Sensei would have been there, but she was probably on a mission or something.

"Taichi Yamanaka."

"Yes, Hogake-sama?" I stood straight, eyes forward.

The old man's eyes softened, "How are you doing?"

I relaxed a little. "As good as can be expected, sir."

He nodded. "Your sensei has taken me through the details of your last mission. From that information, we have tentatively concluded that those Iwa nin were attempting to infiltrate the village by taking your team's identities. However, Niashi-san wasn't there for most of it. We were wondering if you could fill in some of the blanks."

I frowned slightly, "I'm sorry sir, but I was unconscious for the vast majority of my captivity, so I'm not too sure how much more I could fill in. I'm not even sure how long I was in that cave, to be honest."

His eyes widened in surprise. "Well, Taichi-kun, I can tell you now that you were there for the better part of a week." Now it was my turn to be surprised. "Any information you have would be fine. All we know so far is that it was a horrible attempt at an infiltration."

I thought for a second or so before I remembered something that one of the Iwa jounin said. "They knew we were coming." I whispered.

The Third narrowed his eyes. "What was that?"

"Sir, they knew we were coming." I paused, then clarified. "They knew that _we_ were coming. They mentioned that Sensei was stronger than their intel suggested. They had _intel_ on us _specifically._ "

"Are you absolutely sure about that?" The old man tapped his pipe on the side of his desk, contemplating the _very_ bad implications of what I just said.

I stood there with my hand on my chin. "They'd had us surrounded from the beginning. Not even Sensei's clone could detect them, which was kind of surprising. I'd thought that they were just that good, but maybe it was targeted? Like they knew how to hide from her?" It was a long shot, but could happen. "Then they didn't kill us immediately. When I woke up, I heard them talking about how Sensei had just got away, so I figured it hadn't been too long since I was captured. Mai was out cold next to me, and didn't have a scratch on her, so they hadn't… yet..." He nodded, indicating that he knew what I was referring to. "Then after some banter, one of the jounin mentioned my age. He knew _my_ age. They had intel on exactly who _I_ was." I paused. "Then later they asked me about the Yamanaka - they were really shit interrogators, by the way." I wiggled my stump. "They went straight for dismemberment after I refused to talk." I shook my head. "Anyway, by that point, I'd thought they'd gotten my family name out of Mai, but maybe they'd known before that..." I didn't know why they would target our team. I was jumping to conclusions. Everybody knew it, but paranoia was strong in the shinobi world, and I'd just brought up a possible security issue. If there was one thing I could count on, it would be the paranoia of a seasoned shinobi to search and destroy any possible risk.

After a while of thinking, the Hokage looked back to me. "Thank you, Taichi-kun, and I'm sorry that you had to go through all of that."

"It's alright, sir. I'll live."

He nodded sadly. "One more thing before you go." He grabbed a folder from his desk drawer. "In her ramblings with the Mind-healers, Mai-chan has repeatedly expressed her intent to quit the shinobi forces. Granted, she's a bit hard to understand, but we can tell that she won't be ready for any type of field-work any time soon." He winced slightly. "That leaves us with only one genin in your three-man cell."

I nodded, carefully rearing in my emotions.

"In that, we have two options open for you. One option is to join the Genin Corps. The highest ranking mission you would be sent on is C-rank, and it would be very rare to find yourself in any life-threatening situations." He looked to me for a reaction.

I didn't give one. That was a shit option.

"Normally that would be the only option, but you've been given a second: Niashi-san offered to apprentice you, if you wanted it."

"Apprentice? We have a system like that?" I asked.

"It's rare, but it can happen. It basically only happens when someone wants to pass down all their skills to a specific individual, but situations like this have happened before." He shrugged.

I scrunched my eyebrows, "Wouldn't my arm get in the way?"

The Third raised an eyebrow, "You act like loss-of-limb is a rarity."

"It's not?"

"Kami, I wish, but sadly no. You can work around it if you have the skill and drive."

I really didn't even have to think about my options.

"Apprenticeship sounds fun."

The old man smiled. "Somehow I knew you'd pick that."

* * *

 **A/N**

I don't know what it is, but I've read at least 100-150+ fics on this site, and not-a-one has given their main character puppetry, mythical animal summons (dragon, phoenix, etc), or something equally, expectantly cliche. Am I doing something wrong? Clicking the wrong buttons? I've seen plenty that give their main characters the Rinnegan and such, but no _motherfucking_ _ **Dragon Summons?!**_ I almost feel like I have to give Taichi a pet rainbow dragon that spits glitter just to make it fantastical enough to cover the lack of use.

I won't, cuz that would be stupid. But still.

Is anyone good at art? I need something as a cover picture for this bitch.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my bum-hole.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N**

 **Many many thanks to Perias for the new cover picture! It's goddamn perfect!**

OK, so a lot of people want to know why Niashi is still Taichi's sensei. Skip this big block of text if you don't give a shit. She's fucked up twice _._ Well, it basically comes down to the fact that nobody cares. Injuries are ridiculously common in training, so everyone looked at what Taichi & team went through in the test, thought it was a bit excessive, then moved on. Keep in mind that this world doesn't have the same values and morals that we have. People see death and war on a regular basis, so a beat up kid doesn't phase them. For all they know and care, Niashi did it on purpose. As long as she doesn't kill her charges, she has free reign. Taichi's mom, is a mom. And she's _strong._ So that basically means 'don't be the cause of Taichi's hurt, or she's going to whoop ass.

Now with the mission, how Niashi "abandoned" her team to look around, she left a clone so that she would know if something happened, she assumed that nobody had spotted the group when they got there, so she wanted to be the only one to take a risk and look around. She is a relatively famous Konoha nin, so it isn't unreasonable that people would target her over her genin. She _was_ looking out for her team. It just backfired.

Taichi is sticking with her because he realizes that she really doesn't mean any harm. OK, she might not be the best with kids, but she actually cares about them… at least a little. Also she's powerful as fuck. She wrecked two Iwa jounin in a couple seconds. And she's not a bad teacher. I tried to convey that in the scene where she taught Taichi the Shadow Clone.

Also, sorry for how long this one took to update. I just moved house, so It's been difficult to find time to write.

Hold on...

Hey fuckface. Yes you. Stop asking me if I own this shit. I don't… I mean I wrote it, but I don't _own it;_ however-the-fuck _that_ works.

* * *

Chakra strings were useful.

Like _damn_ useful.

I mean, I'd known that for a while. They were one of the first control techniques I tried out, but I hadn't touched them in years.

I don't know why I stopped using them. You could do all sorts of shit with the things. It was essentially telekinesis if you pumped in enough chakra to counteract the weight of the object, and telekinesis was _awesome_.

It took a lot of chakra to move heavy stuff, though. I guess that was the downfall of the technique, and also why puppet masters only used wooden puppets.

Probably also why they hardly ever used recognized jutsu.

By the way, that's what was in the scroll that Sensei gave me along with the puppet book: a small puppet.

I spent all of a day getting to know my new marionette back in the hospital. I had it singing and dancing for a crowd of sick, hospital-kids. Granted the singing was me. I suck at ventriloquism, apparently.

And singing.

The kids told me so.

The little shits.

Anyway, when the puppet came up in conversation with one of the nurses, she asked when I was going to get my new arm.

My immediate response was, "Huh?"

She went on to explain that puppet limbs were not necessarily a rarity.

To which I replied, "Huh?"

Eloquent, I know. I was on a roll.

Apparently, I hadn't seen them around because of a weird thing called "BodyMask™" that was created in Suna. It was a skin-like cover for puppets used to make them look human. After it was reverse engineered in Konoha back in the time of the Sanin, we'd started using it to cover up arm and leg replacements.

That's how I found myself at a store called 'Lost Limb Lumber.'

Fitting name, if you asked me. I walked through the front door.

"Can I help you?" asked the woman at the counter.

"I hope so." I said. "I seem to have lost a limb, and am looking to replace it with lumber."

"Funny."

"... Old joke?"

"Very."

I sighed. "Well in any case, I'd like a new arm."

"I can see that."

"..."

"How much business do you usually get?"

"More than you'd think."

"Huh. So… Can you help me?"

"Most likely."

I blinked at her. "You are decidedly unhelpful, you know that?"

"I've heard that said a few times." She nodded.

I groaned.

The bell on the door rang, signifying someone's entrance. "Kazue, please tell me you're not fucking with our customers again?" I turned around to see a tall, blond-haired, green-eyed, muscular man carrying a bunch of boxes over to the counter.

"I am a woman. I'm not sure how I would go about doing that."

"Simple." I piped up. "First you need a strap that goes on you like underwear, then attach a dild-"

"OK KID! Shut up before she starts taking notes." He put the boxes down, and looked at me. "What are you? Twelve? I didn't expect shit like that to come out of a kid's mouth."

"I'm ten, actually." The man's gaze turned sad for a second. I imagined that he didn't like seeing children in his store. It meant that they needed what he sold. "And my name's Taichi. Nice to meet you."

"Ichiro." He replied, grasping my left hand in a firm shake. "What can we do for you?"

"Well, I'm looking for a new leg." I said.

The man blinked, opened his mouth, then closed it.

"He's fucking with you, Ichi." The woman said.

"Ah."

I grinned.

It took some time after that for me to pick out materials and such. There were a lot of different types of replacement limbs: Basic and solid, or convoluted with a shit ton of moving parts for weapons, and a bunch of variations of each.

I got a basic arm with a detachable wrist.

What? I wanted to rocket-punch people, and didn't want anything too complicated. At least not yet.

The painful part of the process was when I had to go back to the hospital to get the arm connector grafted on to my stub. The saving grace of it was that the connector was one size fits all, meaning that I would never have to replace it as I grew, unlike the arm itself. I called bullshit almost immediately, but apparently there was some ninja magic at work.

I asked, but the doctor that grafted it on just shrugged. She didn't know either.

That was a bit unnerving, but whatever.

After picking out the arm, a care kit, and a skin-like Bodymask to cover it, I thanked them and headed home.

* * *

The Mind-healers were doing their best. Though I imagined it was more of an academic curiosity that drove them, instead of any real benevolent need to complete their job.

They kept comparing notes.

Mai wasn't doing so well. She barely responded to anyone, and still screamed her ass off whenever I was in the room. After a while, I realized I could visit her under _henge_ , but it really wasn't the same. Nobody could even get her to say a single, coherent sentence.

She kept babbling on about how boulders don't hide in trees, they're too big to hide in the trees.

"The falling rocks will crush the leaves… The falling rocks will crush the leaves… **But not the trees!** " She curled into herself and whispered, "But not the trees."

I sat on the window sill, just listening in my free time, playing with my puppet.

"The trees grow tall, disrupting the clouds, the clouds, the clouds… The **clouds!** They storm and burn the trees, fueled by western wind. The battle music plays, it plays, it plays." She was crying, her breath catching on the odd syllable.

Mai had been repeating this over and over with little variance for _days_ now. Most people were writing it off as gibberish, but I couldn't help but think to what I knew about the Chunin Exam invasion.

'Western Wind' sounded like the Hidden Sand, 'battle music' could be the Hidden Sound, the boulders were probably Hidden Rock, and the clouds were obviously Hidden Cloud if the rest was accurate. The trees and leaves couldn't really be anything other than Konoha and her people.

If I was to take this seriously, it would mean quite the conundrum. Only Sand and Sound attacked during the exam in canon. Why would Rock and Cloud join in? Actually, I know they all have their reasons for hating the Leaf, but what would force them to gang up on us?

Also where was Mai getting this information? Was it just a simple hallucination with vivid, village representing, anthropomorphic subjects? Did she overhear the Iwa-nin talking about something that far in the future? Or maybe she had awoken some sort of Oracle power?

The last wasn't too farfetched, as the Great Toad Sage also had something along those lines; but seriously, what the hell was going on here?

I resolved to worry about it later. No doubt some of the paranoid ninja took this as a warning as much as I was. I would bet anything that the Hokage already had a report of it on his desk.

* * *

It took about ten chakra strings to work my new arm. Each string came directly from my stump, and I tried my best to make the movement reflexive.

It wasn't working so well.

I mean, I could move it fine, I could complete basic tasks relatively easily. It was the strings that made puppetry difficult, not so much the puppetry part. The problem was that I had to look at the replacement every time I tried to move it. I couldn't move it around accurately enough. My sense of touch didn't exist there anymore. I couldn't feel the air on my 'skin,' or derive the correct amount of force to pick up a glass without shattering it. I had to scrutinize every movement to make sure I didn't fuck something up.

This was going to take a lot of practice.

"Taichi!" I heard my mom call from the other room. "Come over here for a bit!"

I dragged my attention away from my arm, which looked just like it had before it was chopped off, and walked through the house to where my mom was sitting at the fuinjutsu desk.

"What's up, Kaa-san?"

She looked over to me, biting her lip. "I didn't want to show this to you until you hit at least chunin, but your last mission scared me, and you've shown more than enough maturity."

Interest peaked. I cocked my head to the side.

She turned to me fully. "Did you know that your Kaa-san is _su~uper_ strong, Taichi?" She asked. That was a leading question if I'd ever heard one.

"Ye~es?" I drawled. She snorted.

"I've been keeping these from you for a long while." She began, picking a journal off of the desk. "This is what makes your Kaa-san so strong."

I picked the book from her hand and read the title:

'Fuinjutsu: Bodily Enhancement'

Holy shit. That was possible?

I voiced the question.

"For most people, no. It can cause irreparable damage to the body if miss-, or overused. The average Joe can use it, but the modification can cause the user to literally _break themselves_ under their increased strength and speed. Their bones and organs can't take it."

"Then how do you use it?" I suspected it was the Uzumaki blood.

I was right. She confirmed it.

"But it's not only that." She continued, "Plenty of Uzumaki have broken themselves under this particular art." She leaned over, and flipped the book to page one. "I want you to look this over, and come to me when you've finished it. It's all theory. After that, we'll start on some of the practical."

I was basically bouncing in my chair with excitement.

"I want you to understand something before you get too excited." Her expression turned serious.

I nodded, calming down.

"I am a full-blooded Uzumaki, so these techniques will come easier to me than you. You're half Yamanaka. Essentially, that means you can't use this as a crutch. You won't be able to enhance your speed and strength to insane levels, but you can give yourself a boost, as well as fix up a couple other aspects of your anatomy." She grinned.

A shit-eating grin slowly formed on my face. "Other parts of my anatomy?"

She nodded slowly, suspicious.

"Score!" I yelled. "I'm gonna be a huge hit with the ladies!"

Next thing I knew, my head hurt, and I was laying on the ground. "Bad, Taichi. Bad." My mom chastised.

* * *

 **A/N**

By the way, I'm not giving him dragon summons. Mythical creature summons work for some fics, but I don't think it would for this one.

On that same line of thought; I am taking suggestions for summons. I have a couple ideas, but they're 'eh.'  
Not even sure if I'll give him summons at all. Still, options are options. I like having options.

An ass-load of underwear is exactly _one_ pair of underwear.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my pooper shooter.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N**

Busy busy busy.

Wave arc - start.

I don't own Naruto

* * *

"You're telling me that you have _no_ idea who's going to be on your team?" I asked incredulously.

"Of course I don't!" Ino shouted "If I knew, I wouldn't be freaking out!"

"Ino… My sweet, cute little cousin-"

"You're only like three weeks older than me!" She huffed

I ignored her. "You're not going to be on a team with the Uchiha."

"What?!"

"Yell one more time, and I'll punt you into next week. The fact that you're my cute little cousin does not change the punishment for yelling." I said calmly, clearing my ear.

"S-sorry" She knew I hated loud shit. I'd kicked her ass before about it too. Yeah, she's a girl. I don't give a shit. "Wait, but how do you know I won't be on his team?" _His_ team? Not him being on _her_ team?

"Oh Ino, your obsession with the broody twit is disgusting." It really was. For the past six years, Sasuke Uchiha has been the light of Ino's pre-pubescent life.

"I'm not obsessed!" She wanted to yell. She really did.

"Yeah. You are." I poked her arm. "I'm calling it right now. You'll be on a team with Shika, and Choji."

"What?!" I poked her harder, and she quieted down. "Those two lazy bums? Why them?!"

"Your fathers were a team. It worked, so they'll assume that you three will work."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

I shrugged. It really didn't make any sense. These kids weren't their parents. I mean they specialized in the same stuff, but it was a famous combination with documented faults. In the previous war, we'd heard about combat drills specifically for combating the Ino-shika-cho. Why not try to mix it up a bit? Make it so that this team of _children_ aren't trounced into oblivion because people knew how their fathers functioned? They didn't have the experience to counter all of that.

Konoha could be stupid sometimes.

"It's still going to happen."

"I don't believe you." She crossed her arms and pouted.

I laughed. "Come on. The Yamanaka Festival's about to start."

Hot _damn_ the Yamanaka can party.

)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

"Backup?"

"Yeah, you've been taking a lot of missions in the area lately. The team that's there has requested an extra set of hands, and I figure you and your sensei have got a good lay of the land to get there quick." The chunin at the mission desk said.

I'd been called over to the desk about ten minutes prior via an urgent messenger hawk for a mission briefing.

"Alright, I'm down. Details?"

He handed me a scroll.

"Where's Niashi, by the way?" He asked looking around. "I can't just send a single genin as backup."

"Ehh, around." Gotta distract him. "Who am I backing up?" Sensei was in fact out on another mission. Not sure how he didn't know that - being at the mission desk - but whatever.

"Kakashi and his team. They ran into a couple chunin and expect further resistance."

The Wave mission? I was being asked as Backup for _the_ Wave mission?

Oh this was going to be fun. "Tell my Kaa-san I'll be back in a month?"

The chunin looked up suddenly, pale faced. "O-on second thou-"

I didn't give him a chance to finish before I lept away towards the gates.

I did, in fact, know exactly where they fought the Demon Brothers. The chunin at the mission desk was right; I had been taking just about any mission towards Wave lately, and knew the area pretty damn well. So between my knowledge of the show, the area, and what was written in the mission scroll, I knew exactly where to find them.

Why would I take nearly every mission near Wave?

I _really_ wanted Zabuza's sword.

The idea of it fascinated me. I mean, it was a sword that could repair itself with the blood of the slaughtered.

That was metal as fuck.

"Mission. Wave. Be back in a month or so." I said quickly to the gate guards, flashing my mission scroll. We always had to check in with the gate guards before we left, otherwise let ourselves be branded nuke-nin. It was a pain in the ass, but I could see the importance.

The guard nodded and I bolted out the gate, releasing my gravity seal.

I was easily as fast as Lee without his weights. Probably a good bit faster, actually. I'd been perpetually adding weight to my gravity seal for about eight years now, and never released it unless I was in a pinch. Lee was stuck to physical weights, and just on his legs too. They were probably chakra weights, but those had a limited chakra storage capacity. My gravity seal didn't. It was a conversion seal, not storage, so It didn't require a 'tank,' per-sey. Instead, it directly converted the chakra into weight. Regular chakra weights just took a basic chakra tank seal, and then added a gravity matrix to convert it to weight. Less complex, cheaper, and could be worn and taken off easily. The gravity seal was just more efficient for long-term use if you don't release it often. Plus it gives that absolutely massive chakra burst when released. It's a nice surprise weapon.

In short, I'd been training with weights longer, and harder than Lee, so It would only make sense that I was faster.

The only issue was that I needed about three to four months to refill the seal if I released it now. It was getting to the point where it wasn't necessarily worth the chakra cost during those months, where I would essentially have to syphon half of my chakra each day into the seal, just to get it back up to snuff.

Now I haven't even considered the bodily enhancement seals that my mom taught me a couple years ago. She was right, though; I didn't get the same boost she got because I wasn't a full Uzumaki. My body couldn't take it; however, I did get a few amazing boosted stats out of that deal.

The speed and strength boosts were marginal, and they ended up being countered by the gravity seal anyway. I would still see them after I released the seal, but I just ended up adding more chakra to it so that I would function normally.

Then there were three other boosts that were just plain amazing: durability, recovery, and perception.

The durability and recovery were Kami-damned incredible. I didn't have metal skin or anything, but there was now a certain _resistance_ to most damage. Kind of like I was wearing thin layer of kevlar instead of skin, and my bones seemed like they were reinforced with Iron. I could still get stabbed, but it took a good bit more effort to puncture something, and my bones could still snap, but the same rule applied; more effort was required.

That's where the recovery came in. I think.

I don't even know what to say about that one.

My right arm was still made of wood, so it didn't fix that, and I hadn't really needed to use my new healing factor yet. It was all passive, so I didn't really choose to activate any of these anyway. I supposed It would just make my time in the hospital a bit shorter, which would be welcome by anyone's standards.

The perception modification is what had me doing a happy dance for three months straight.

If you recall, I'd learned how to do the body-flicker at a stupidly young age, and wanted to try and be the next Shunshin no Shisui.

I'd hit a brick wall on that one. It turns out that Shisui could do what he did because he had the Mangekyo sharingan. Essentially he could slow down his perception of time to the point where the shunshin didn't seem like it was making him move all that fast.

Then, two years ago, when my mom brought up the perception enhancement, something clicked. The Fourth Hokage was moving _faster_ than Shisui ever could. How in the _fuck_ was he able to keep track of that shit? He didn't have fancy eyes. Yes, it was teleportation, technically, but he could pull hundreds of teleports out of his ass in a split second, stabbing every enemy along the way in the process. He was _definitely faster than Shisui,_ and I was half convinced that he could use the shunshin like Shisui could anyway.

Kushina probably taught him the enhancement. Apparently the perception boost isn't as crazy damaging as the rest of them, and I know the Fourth had about the same amount of chakra as an average Uzumaki, not to mention he was a seal master. I could totally see him making the perception enhancement work for him.

That meant that if I could get it to work for me, I would be able to bounce all around the Kami-damned place, ruining peoples' days.

Cue happy dance of two year younger Taichi.

Needless to say, it wasn't that simple. I still got the hang of it, though the combination of body-flicker and use of the perception boost was a chakra-eating bitch. The perception boost was the only enhancement that needed to be activated. It essentially slowed down time for me. I didn't want that on 24/7. Due to the chakra drain, I resolved to leave it as a trump card. I could flicker maybe 50 or so times with it activated before I hit chakra exhaustion. It was great if I wanted to take down large groups quickly, but on a constant battlefield like the elemental nations, I needed to conserve as much chakra as I could outside of the village. Not to mention that I didn't trust the technique against A-rank shinobi or higher. A blind shunshin charge wasn't a rare attack against a stronger opponent. People who made A-rank could pretty much be trusted to have a counter for it.

Mine wasn't blind anymore, but I still didn't trust it completely.

I was making damn good time to Wave. I knew I only had a day or so until Naruto and gang fell upon Zabuza, and I wanted to be there for that. Not for the first time, I was incredibly thankful for my larger-than-usual chakra reserves. I had jounin level reserves back when I was ten, and they had only gotten larger.

It made the trip a lot easier.

I made it to the edge of Fire country's border in about thirty or so hours, just in time to find them all packing up camp.

I surprised them a bit.

"Hey guys! Whoahholyshit!" I barely avoided a kunai to the face. "Jumpy, aren't we?"

"Taichi-san?" Sakura asked, bewildered.

"Hey Sakura. You guys weren't even going to wait for backup, were you?" I'd gotten to know Sakura a bit when Ino and her were still friends.

"You know this guy, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, still with a kunai barred at me.

"Y-yeah, he's Ino's cousin. Graduated two years ahead of us."

Naruto looked me over. "But he looks our age!"

"I moved up a couple years." I shrugged.

Silence.

"Why are you here?" Sasuke piped up.

"I was sent as backup."

"We asked for backup?" Naruto asked, and was ignored.

"A lone genin was sent as backup?" Kakashi asked. "I asked for _actual_ backup. The next opponent is probably going to be a jounin or two." He sighed.

I shrugged. "I was sent because I know the area and could get here fast."

He blinked. "You did get here pretty quick. I wasn't expecting you till we got to the bridge. Where's your sensei, anyway?" Hold on. Did Kakashi send for backup in canon? Was he expecting them to cross through Gato's blockade? Working in the area gave me some knowledge of the way the shipping magnate worked things, so it was pretty apparent that fucking nothing was getting through that shit without chunin level skills. And knowing the backup system, they probably just sent another genin squad in canon. New genin can't reliably sneak around a blockade. They can't water-walk yet. The only way we're getting across is because Tazuna set up a little boat trip for us.

"Dunno, she was sent on another mission a week ago. I've been running courier missions since."

"By yourself?" He asked incredulously.

I shrugged again. "I'm fast."

He blinked. "Huh."

"What the hell is going on over there?" A fat - already drunk - civilian waddled over from his tent.

"Tazuna, I presume?"

"Yeah, what's it to ya?"

"I'm here to help make sure you don't die."

He sputtered. "Another twerp? Konoha's not really up to snuff if they can only spare kids."

"Sorry what was that?" I cleared some earwax. "All I heard was 'I'm an idiot who wants to die.'"

He sputtered indignantly. "Why you little shit. You should respect your elder-"

The next thing he knew, he was staring into my eyes, two inches from his own. My disguised, wooden hand around his neck, bringing him down to my level.

"I don't think I like you. You should lay off the alcohol, you old fuck. It's messing with your sense of danger."

"Mah, mah. That's no way to treat a client, Taichi-kun." Kakashi said, pulling me off of Tazuna, who looked - and smelled - like he'd just shat his pants.

"Apologies." I replied, still glaring at the old bridge builder. I looked over to find the other three genin blinking at me dumbly. "What?"

"F-fast!" Sakura stuttered. Naruto's mouth was on the floor, and Sasuke was just staring at me with squinted eyes.

"Oh, look. Our ride's here." Kakashi said simply, pointing at a boat pulling up to the shore.

* * *

The boat ride was long, slow, and boring. Tazuna did his little spiel on how Gato was the big bad enemy, but that was just more boring. I'd known all of that already.

After letting us off at the dock, the boat driver took off with barely a 'goodbye,' and we all made our way to Tazuna's house.

I knew Zabuza was going to attack any minute no-

"There!" Naruto shouted, tossing a kunai into the bushes.

Here we go.

"Naruto! Look at what you've done!" Sakura yelled.

"Ahh! A rabbit!?"

Come on, come on.

"Duck!" Kakashi yelled.

There it is! I didn't bother ducking from the incoming, huge ass sword. Instead I jumped _in front of it,_ put my puppet hand up, and used the secondary activation of my projectile seal, "Mine, bitch!" sealing the sword away. I found that I could still activate the seal on my right glove through chakra strings, even the complicated parts.

"What the fuck!?" A voice in the trees sounded out. "Where'd my sword go?!"

" _Your_ sword?" I asked innocently. "You mean _my_ sword." I flipped my perception seal on.

Good thing I did, too, because Zabuza was now right in front of me, killer intent radiating like a Kami-damned _sun,_ and aiming a punch at my face. I body-flickered away before it could hit. "You mad, bro?"

Holy shit that killer intent was nuts. I nearly shat myself like Tazuna did.

I dodged another punch. "You mad." Fuck this guy was fast. Especially now that he wasn't lugging around a ten-ton piece of magical metal. I could only keep up with body-flickers. "Very mad."

"Gahh!" Wow, Zabuza _really_ didn't like it when someone took his shit. Too bad he didn't notice Kakashi stabbing him in the back because of it.

Wait, no, that was a good thing.

Then Zabuza burst into water.

I sighed. Of course this wouldn't be easy. I'd used up nearly half of my chakra just catching up to Team Seven. I wasn't necessarily low, but I was running for over thirty hours straight, for fuck's sake. I needed to use chakra for energy conservation purposes, not so much speed. I was tired, and it was making me act like an idiot. Antagonizing a Jounin. Bad Taichi.

I did manage a nap on the boat, though.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan." Zabuza said, dropping from the trees. "That brat of yours had better give me back my sword if he know's what's good for him."

"Sharingan?" Sasuke asked, a little overwhelmed by what just happened.

"Zabuza Momochi-"

"I'm gonna call him Momo." I interrupted. Shut _up_ Taichi.

Kakashi looked at me, then back to Zabuza and continued, "Momo, the Demon of the Mist." I guess he saw how easy it was to rile him up. An angry opponent is a sloppy opponent.

I grinned.

"OK, that's it. Haku! We're obliterating these bastards!"

Ah fuck. Haku. Forgot about him.

"Of course, Zabuza-sama." Haku said, appearing next to Zabuza in hunter-nin garb.

I turned to Kakashi. "I'm guessing you want Momo?" He eye-smiled and nodded. "Have fun."

"Need help?" I was surprised he asked me that, honestly. The default was to always assume the genin needed help.

"Probably not. I can at least hold him until you finish up." I wasn't even worried about Kakashi and Zabuza's fight. I was now the proud owner of Zabuza's sword, and that was at least a quarter of his over-all strength.

Kakashi nodded.

"What about us?!" Naruto yelled.

"Guard Tazuna." The scarecrow said.

"Bullshit! I want to fight too!"

"Shut up, you idiot!" Sakura slapped him upside the head.

"If it looks like Taichi-kun needs help, Sasuke, Naruto. Help out. Other than that, guard Tazuna."

"Hidden Mist Jutsu!"

"Ahh damn it. I can't see shit." I said.

* * *

 **A/N**

I'm trying to work on the speed and length of my updates, I really am. Hopfully this isn't too bad of a cliffhanger.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my dirty star.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N**

Slightly longer than usual _and_ on schedule? Who the fuck are you and what have you done with Intata?

Now I didn't proofread this one as much as I normally do, so it might have a couple of little issues. I'm tired and I just want to post it. So shush.

I forgot to mention this last chapter - the fact that Shisui could use the body-flicker like he did was only because of his Sharingan. **That**. That was brought to my attention by **Kejmur** (and a couple others, but Kejmur was the first, and most helpful) **.** This beautiful bastard helped me think up a way for Taichi to still use the body-flicker like how I wanted him to. He was the one who suggested fuinjutsu as the fix.

So thank you, Kejmur. Your insight has been, and continues to be very helpful!

Now something less happy.

 _ **To the commenter known as Peon:**_

Thank you for your inciteful, spiteful, and asinine comments. I very much appreciate how you've wholeheartedly ignored my pleading to not shove insults up my ass. Truly, you are a gift to this world, who's opinion should be heeded. You have proven that your chosen username is, in fact, your worth. Now please do us all a favor and fuck off.

Ugh.

I do, in actuality, _read_ the comments left by all of you, and I attempt to reply to every single one via personal message - as per the 'reply' function. The replies that you've all seen written at the top of my Author's Notes have all been to people who have their personal messages turned off, or are guests, and I feel that there is a good enough reason to share the answer with all of you. I realize that I've missed a few comments, but I do end up _reading_ all of them.

 _Personal_ attacks based off of a misspelling of a word are an idiotic waste of time that will only serve to enrage both parties. I am not an… (had to look this word up) Otaku, or whatever term applies to an utter anime fanatic. I just happened to grow up with Naruto, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Thereby, if you get _personally offended_ by the misspelling of a _word,_ and do not _politely attempt to bring it to my attention,_ and instead shout obscenities in my direction _._ I will hate you, and I will not listen to you.

I would not do well in the military for this reason.

So to everyone who's been silently raging about my little misspellings, thank you for not _openly_ raging. To the few who have pointed out little details and have actually helped me improve my writing, **thank you.**

This fic is practice for me. I am currently planning an actual novel that I want to get published. I am here to learn, and have fun doing so. The fact that I can share this with you all is fun for me. So If you **don't** like it, please just go somewhere else.

Rant over…. Where was I? Oh, right. Zabuza and Haku **V** Taichi and Kakashi.

This'll be fun.

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

 **Last Time**

" _Hidden Mist Jutsu!"_

" _Ahh damn it. I can't see shit." I said._

* * *

"Please surrender. I don't want to have to kill you." Haku said from inside the mist.

"I'm going to rip your face off and make Momo eat it." I said deadpan.

"... What?"

"I mean, hi! Nice to meet you! My name's Taichi." A happy step in my voice appeared from nowhere.

I swear I could _hear_ him blink. "... Haku."

"Haku." I repeated tasting the name on my lips. "Haku. That's a nice name. Now listen, Haku, I'm _very_ tired. I just ran for thirty or so hours straight just to catch up with the rest of my team." I gestured back towards where the other three genin were guarding Tazuna. I couldn't see them in the mist, but I knew they were there. I knew I was rambling, but I was _fucking exhausted._ Everything was getting on my nerves. Have you ever ran for _thirty fucking hours straight?_ It's not fun. The only reason I was able to function normally was because I had circulated a _lot_ of chakra through my whole system during the run, letting it rejuvenate me. That still didn't fix the fact that I was _running for thirty Kami-damned hours straight._

"Then all the more reason to surrender."

"Hm? Oh, no. I'm just saying I'm going to kill you quickly so I can go take a damn nap."

"... You don't even know where I am. How do you plan on attacking?"

"Well you can't see me either."

"But I know where you are."

"No you don't."

By this point, I could hear the distinct sound of metal on metal clashing. I imagined Kakashi and Zabuza were going at it pretty good. I wondered where Zabuza got another weapon. It didn't look like he carried around anything besides Kiribororororororchiroriroro, or whatever the fuck the sword was called.

"Yes. I do."

"You know, I'm honestly surprised that you're this content to talk. I figured you'd be pretty gung-ho on killing me."

I heard him sigh, and a few senbon flew out from the mist.

I sucked them into my projectile seal. "This will be a boring fight if all you do is throw senbon. Projectiles don't really work on me."

"Is that how you stole Zabuza-sama's sword? That seal on your hand?"

"Momo's sword? Stole? He _clearly_ gave it to me."

More senbon flew out of the mist. A _lot_ more senbon. I sucked them up, just the same.

"No take-backs."

"Lets try something else then." The atmosphere started to get much colder. "Ice release: Needle Death!"

The surrounding mist started to condense into ice needles, then hurled their way towards me.

"You're learning!" I said. I couldn't use my projectile seal on jutsu. "Good for you!" I focused in on Haku's chakra signature, and _just_ before the ice needles pelted me, I used the Body Replacement jutsu with him. "Learn faster."

"AAgh!" Haku screamed. It was pretty difficult to use the body replacement with another, unwilling living being, but you could get around the difficulties in two ways: you could switch right after you opponent used a jutsu - when their chakra system is in slight chaos and has trouble fighting against it, or just by overpowering them by sheer chakra mass.

"Wind Release: Air Burst." An omnidirectional flurry of wind originated from my body, wiping away all the surrounding mist. It didn't wipe it all away, but it cleared a good bit. This was a jutsu that I created. It was based off of Niashi-sensei's Fire Release: Scorching Burst. I could do the jutsu without seals, mostly because when I created it, I didn't use them. I didn't really need to say the name either, but it was a pretty good focusing tool, and helped me save that little bit of chakra. Sensei told me that it would be ranked around C-rank, as it wasn't that powerful or complex, but it was damn useful for clearing poison clouds, mist, or whatever little thing I was up against. I probably could have cleared those ice needles with it, but that wouldn't have been any fun.

"Y-you're a wind user." Haku choked out, now perfectly visible with hundreds of icy needles sticking out of him.

"Nope. Wind is my second element."

He looked at me - or at least I _think_ he did. I couldn't see his eyes behind that mask of his. "Are you really a genin?"

I shrugged.

Then a body crashed through the clearing, putting a sizable, body-shaped scrape along the dirt.

"Zabuza-sama!" Haku yelled, running to the downed body.

"How're you holding up?" A voice said, coming to a stop right behind me.

"Ehh, not bad. We mainly talked. Boring really."

Kakashi blinked. "Then why does he look like a very cold porcupine?"

"He can use Ice release. I think he's a masochist." I looked over to Kakashi. His Sharingan was out and he had a few scrapes, but nothing serious.

"Ice? That's a Kekkei Genkai. Very dangerous."

"Really? I don't think he's very good with it, then. How's Momo?"

" **I'm going to rip you both to shreds!"** Zabuza yelled from across the clearing.

We ignored him. "Much easier to handle without his sword-"

"You mean _my_ sword."

"Whatever." He waved me off, twirling a kunai into a ready position just in time to intercept a leaping Zabuza, pushing them both quickly out of the clearing.

"Ice Release: Frozen Hell!" With Haku at the center, ice started to billow across the ground in all directions. I was pretty far away from him, so I didn't think it would reach very far.

I was wrong.

The technique flew along the ground for a couple hundred meters in all directions, freezing all the grass and bushes in its way. He must have had a lot more chakra than I thought.

I barely avoided it by jumping up on a tree branch, then I heard a scream from where the other genin were guarding Tazuna, still hidden in the mist.

Shit. OK. Gotta finish this fast.

I flipped my perception seal back on and unsealed a tanto, pulling myself into a striking stance. At this point, I was running low on chakra, I couldn't play with my food anymore.

"Ice Release: Frozen Forest!" Spikes plunged upwards from the icy terrain below, filling the air almost instantly.

I body-flickered into a jump upwards to avoid it, and created two shadow clones. One of which jumped off of the other, popping it, and hurling itself towards Haku, plunging its tanto into the ground Haku was just standing on.

Still in free-fall, I body-flickered off another clone right at Haku, who was also in the air from dodging my clone.

He couldn't move in time, and I struck him through with my tanto, piledriving us both into the ground.

Haku cried out from the impact.

I stood up from my position on top of him. "Goodbye." I said, removing my short blade from his sternum, and swiping it across his neck - severing the head.

I didn't even blink. I'd killed before.

In the past two years alone, I'd killed plenty of times. Sensei had mentioned once that you should never assume a shinobi dead until they'd lost their head. She'd just gotten out of a battle with another jounin who she'd stabbed a good dozen times, but just wouldn't die. So she cut his head off.

I'll admit, I might have taken that to heart a little more strongly than she expected.

Thirty seven bandits, four shinobi, and a big-ass wild boar later, I had earned my own moniker with the teams I'd taken missions with: The Guillotine.

It sounded more epic than it was.

I quickly looked over my chakra reserves, then sighed. I was edging on twenty percent. I needed a fucking nap. I could still function, hell, I might even be able to pull off a sneak attack or two on Zabuza, but without his sword, Kakashi should have this in the bag.

I resolved to leave it to him, and headed back through the mist to the other Genin. I wanted to see what that screaming was about.

When I got over there, the reason was pretty plain:

Sakura was missing a leg. It looked like the combination of Haku's two Ice Release jutsus froze, then shattered her leg before she could clear the area.

Well fuck.

At least she was unconscious.

"How is she?" I asked.

Naruto looked up as I approached, looked surprised, then glanced behind me. "Are you alright? What happened to the other guy?"

"Haku? He's dead, and I'm still kicking." Naruto widened his eyes and frowned. "What about Sakura? She OK?"

He nodded. "Yeah, the Bastard here cortersized the-"

"Cauterized." Sasuke corrected, looking at me with an unreadable expression.

"Yeah, that. Then he wrapped it up." Naruto paused. "She's breathing a little hard, and looks a little pale, but she's fine." He paused. "We barely made it out of that Ice crap."

I nodded, and looked over to Tazuna, who was almost as pale as Sakura. "How much farther to your house?"

He seemed to snap out of something. "Uh, not that much farther. Twenty minutes or so."

"Good. Kakashi should be finishing up soo-" As if on cue, the mist all started to fade away, and Kakashi came strolling out of the remnants of it, Zabuza strung over his shoulder.

I tossed him an empty body scroll.

He looked at it, then nodded to me, sealing the corpse into the scroll.

"What was that about?" Naruto asked.

"The scroll?" I asked in turn.

He nodded.

"That was a body scroll." Kakashi said. Storing said scroll in his mission pouch. "It's great for storing dead people."

"Why are you doing that?"

"Zabuza had quite the hefty bounty on his head." Then waved it off, not really in the mood to explain it, then looked at Sakura with a frown. "How is she?"

* * *

I was woken up the middle of the night with the sound of crying. Looking over, I saw Sakura sitting up against the wall. Sasuke was awake already, putting on his mission gear, and heading out the door. He probably couldn't sleep through the noise. Naruto was just snoring away.

I sighed. "You alright, Sakura?" I asked, walking over.

She looked up at me, tears marring her eyes. "I… My leg is…"

"Gone. Yeah."

She choked a little, wiping her eyes to to avail. "It hurts. So much."

I scooched a bit closer. I'd learned the Mystical Palm jutsu about a year ago at Sensei's insistence. She said I didn't have to be good at it, but if I could stop myself or my teammates from bleeding out after a fight, then it was worth every second I put into learning it. Apparently everyone in ANBU could use it to some extent.

A green light started to shine around my left hand, and I brought it closer to her leg.

She flinched away. "W-what's that?"

"Healing jutsu. Kakashi used it on you while you were unconscious yesterday. It won't hurt."

"You're a medic?"

"No, but my own sensei thought I should learn it anyway. I can't do crazy surgery like a real medic, but I might be able to ease some of the pain." I brought my hand closer, and this time she didn't flinch away.

"Better?" I asked after a couple minutes.

She nodded.

"Think you can get some sleep?"

She nodded again.

"Cool, well I'm going to get back to it." I only had about three hours of sleep. I needed plenty more than that if I was going to recover from the day before and the run from Konoha.

Her hand grabbed my arm as I was getting up. "Can you… sit with me for a bit?"

I sighed. "Sure."

And that's what we did. We just sat there for a good half-hour before she spoke again.

"What am I going to do now?" she mumbled.

"Train. Losing a limb is not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal?!" She almost screamed. Naruto snorted and rolled over, still asleep.

"Quiet. You'll wake everyone up." I said simply.

"What do you mean, 'not that big of a deal'?! What would you know about it?!"

"Look princess," She bristled. "You're not the only one who's lost something like that. It's kind of common, actually." Over the past two years, I'd been to see Ichiro and Kazue at the puppet limb store plenty of times, and I got a good look at their customer base. It was pretty damn large, to say the least.

"Common?" She asked. "But I've never seen anyone…"

"Yeah, you probably wouldn't. There's this great puppet limb store in Konoha's marketplace-"

"Now you're just making stuff up!"

I sighed and extended my right arm, grabbed the elbow, and _twisted,_ The puppet limb unhinged itself from my shoulder and I used the already present chakra strings to float it in front of me.

"I lost my arm two years ago." I said, staring at the floating, wooden appendage. "I lost both of my teammates during that mission too." That was true to a degree. Shiro was dead, but Mai was still in the hospital's psych ward. I made sure to visit her every week since she'd stopped screaming her head off when she saw me, but she wouldn't ever be the same. "I know what I'm talking about."

"Oh… S-sorry." She mumbled, staring at the floating limb.

"It's fine." I looked at her. " _You'll_ be fine, Sakura. I know you have the chakra control to work a puppet limb. It just takes some practice." I floated the arm back in place, then twisted it back on. "I'll tell you what; I'll walk you through puppetry tomorrow if you stop sulking. Sound good?"

She nodded.

"Great!" I said, standing up. "Now I'm going to get some _fucking_ sleep."

"Taichi-san?"

"Yeah?" I turned around to see her wiping tears from her eyes.

"Thanks."

I smiled, gave her a two finger salute, and flopped down on my bedroll.

* * *

 **A/N**

I might cover Kakashi's perspective of the fight with Zabuza in the next chapter, but really, I don't know how to write Zabuza without his sword. His character is pretty solid in my head, and lacking that sword is throwing me off.

Let me know if you want me to do it anyway.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my puckered starfish.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N**

Well I think I might have died or something because… well, hot damn this took a long while to punch out.

This one's long-ish though.

So some people wanted me to try out Kakashi's perspective. I'm sorry if it sucks. I'm not worried about the fact that it's Kakashi's perspective, I just don't have much confidence in writing Zabuza without his sword. That's pretty much why this took a while. I hit a block on the Ka/Za fight….

Well that, and I'm a lazy fuck.

A couple people seem to be under the impression that this is a Taichi **X** Ino fic.

It is not. I am not a fan of incest.

Just thought I'd clear that up.

I don't own Naruto. Yet.

* * *

 **Kakashi V Zabuza**

Kakashi didn't know what to think of this kid. He was fast and resourceful, apparently, but that was pretty much all the information he had outside of a few rumors and a name-drop or two in the village.

The kid had caught up to them just _two days_ after he'd requested reinforcements, when he didn't expect anyone for a good week or two. Even then, judging by Gato's blockade, they would have been delayed much longer; perhaps delayed enough to miss the mission entirely. But no. This mere child ran directly from Konoha to the border of Fire Country in just over thirty hours. Non stop. That was a feat he'd only seen ANBU do and still be able to function afterwards.

Taichi was acting like he just went for a jog, and only took a twenty-or-so minute nap on the boat. He kept complaining about being tired, but Kakashi didn't see any signs that he _was, in fact,_ as tired as he claimed.

"There!" Naruto shouted, tossing a kunai into the bushes.

Kakashi had sensed the movement a millisecond before Naruto, but it proved to only be a rabbit… With white fur..

At this time of year?

"Naruto! Look what you've done!" Sakura yelled.

"Ahh! A rabbit?!"

It was then that he heard the tell-tale swishing of a blade flying through air.

"Duck!" He yelled, hoping everyone could dodge in time.

But apparently Taichi had some other shit to do that involved getting chopped in half, because he jumped right the fuck infront of the behemoth blade.

Kakashi couldn't even react in time to do anything about it, but in the next split second the sword just up and disappeared.

"Mine, bitch!" The kid shouted.

There was a good couple seconds of silence.

"What the fuck?!" a voice in the trees sounded out. "Where'd my sword go?!"

" _Your_ sword?" the kid asked _entirely too_ innocently, "You mean _my_ sword."

Killer intent blanketed the entire clearing, and it was definitely one of the worst Kakashi had ever experienced. Nothing he couldn't put up with, but judging by the fact that Sasuke was about to stab himself under the pressure, his genin were having trouble with it.

Taichi, on the other hand, saw fit to antagonize the angry, rampaging - wait, rampaging? Shit! He'd missed the first punch, too focused on the other genin.

"You mad, bro?" The kid asked cheekily after body-flickering away.

Zabuza dashed forward to try again, but Taichi flickered, appearing five feet over yonder.

"You mad." Taichi breathed. "Very mad."

Zabuza was about to shoot off again, but Kakashi finally got his shit together enough to bum-rush the missing nin while he was distracted, only for Zabuza to burst into water at the hit.

Stupid clones.

A figure jumped down from the trees on the edge of the clearing. "Kakashi of the Sharingan. That brat of yours better give me back my sword if he knows what's good for him."

"Sharingan?" Sasuke asked from the background.

"Zabuza Momochi-" Kakashi started, only to get interrupted by Taichi.

"I'm gonna call him Momo."

Kakashi blinked at Taichi.

He was really starting to like this kid. "Momo, the Demon of the Mist."

"OK, that's it. Haku! We're obliterating these bastards!" Zabuza yelled.

Kakashi frowned. Haku? There was someone else?

Another figure jumped down from the surrounding trees, dressed as a Kiri hunter-nin.

"Of course, Zabuza-sama." the newcomer said, getting into a ready pose.

Kakashi was contemplating how he would take on both opponents when Taichi turned to him, "I'm guessing you want Momo?"

Taichi thought he was going to help? He quickly thought it over. So far, the kid had successfully avoided _two_ attacks from an enraged, A-rank missing nin. The fact that it was just a clone didn't mean anything. If nothing else, he could keep this 'Haku' character busy until he finished up with Zabuza without worrying too much.

He did his trade-mark eye smile, and nodded.

"Have fun." the kid said.

"Need help?" Kakashi asked. He knew the kid _had_ to be tired from his trip from Konoha to the border, so he didn't want to just unload a full battle on an exhausted genin.

"Probably not." he said, almost dismissively - like he was just asked if he needed help bringing in the groceries. "I can at least hold him until you finish up."

It sounded like Taichi implied Kakashi beating Zabuza was a foregone conclusion. Kakashi would admit that it was a bit of a confidence and ego booster, but he wasn't sure that it would be that easy. .

He nodded anyway.

"What about us?!" Naruto yelled.

Kakashi looked over. "Guard Tazuna."

"Bullshit! I want to fight too!"

"Shut up, you idiot!" Sakura slapped him upside the head.

Kakashi sighed internally. He was going to have to fix that gung-ho attitude. "If it looks like Taichi-kun needs help, Sasuke, Naruto, help out. Other than that, guard Tazuna."

"Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Mist billowed out from Zabuza, saturating the air to the point of almost no visibility.

"Ahh damn it. I can't see shit." The voice of Taichi rang out from a couple feet away.

Kakashi bolted for Zabuza's chakra signature before he could completely disguise it in the mist, and kicked out at it.

Zabuza reacted cleanly, backpedaling out of the clearing to avoid the hit. If he could separate Kakashi and his brat, Haku wouldn't have to worry about interference.

Kakashi's thoughts were about the same in regards to Taichi.

Just a little outside of the clearing, which was still covered in a dense mist, Kakashi stood ready while Zabuza was listing off internal organs and other body parts.

What the fuck kind of 'Master of Silent Killing-or whatever' did that?

"You done, Momo?" Kakashi asked.

"Let's go with the spleen. I've always liked stabbing people in the spleen." Zabuza's disembodied voice rang out.

"Sounds wonderful." Kakashi said, lifting up his hitai-ate, revealing a red eye with three tomo swirling around.

Just then, he saw a shimmer in the mist coming straight for his midsection.

He swiped with his kunai, redirecting the blow downward, and punched out with his free hand at the figure.

It popped into water.

Fucking clones.

"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" Zabuza's voice rang out.

Kakashi's hands flew into familiar seals, "Earth Style: Earthen Wall!"

The dragon splashed against the wall like a tsunami, but still held.

The mist was starting to fade slightly, so Kakashi quickly made two shadow clones. He sent them around each side of the wall as he sunk into the earth.

A few seconds later, they popped - each taking a blow from a now visible Zabuza - sending their memories back to Kakashi, who quickly reached up and grabbed Zabuza's leg.

However, Zabuza was an A-Rank missing nin for a reason. Instead of being pulled under, he jumped, pulling Kakashi out of the ground in a crazy feat of strength, then kicked out with his free leg.

Kakashi blocked with a forearm, still clutching onto Zabuza's leg, then spun them both and sent Zabuza careening into the ground.

The missing nin was back in the air before Kakashi could hit the ground, though, swinging out with a tanto.

Where the fuck did he get that? Ah whatever.

The scarecrow met the blade with his own kunai, and pushed off, letting them both get a proper foothold on ground again.

They immediately flew at each other once again.

Kakashi swung to the left and was parried.

Zabuza swung down and was blocked.

Kakashi kicked out, and his leg was pushed to the side.

They were pretty even, all things considered, however Kakashi's Sharingan was picking up patterns.

It wasn't long before Kakashi sent out a spin kick that flung shark-teeth back towards the previous clearing.

"Zabuza-sama!" He heard the fake hunter-nin yell.

Kakashi landed in the clearing, taking in the fact that Taichi looked fine, but the 'Haku' character was riddled with icy needles.

"How are you holding up?" He asked.

Taichi looked over. "Eh, not bad. We mainly talked. Boring really." This kid was flippant as all hell.

Kakashi blinked and looked over to Haku. "Then why does he look like a very cold porcupine?"

"He can use ice release. I think he's a masochist," the kid said, scratching the back of his head.

What the fuck? "Ice? That's a Kekkei Genkai. Very dangerous." He was regretting his decision to leave the kid alone on this one.

He didn't look surprised at all. "Really? I don't think he's very good with it, then. How's Momo?"

N-not very good with it? Who the hell was this kid?

" **I'm going to rip you both to shreds!"**

Kakashi didn't even bother to look over. "Much easier to handle without his sword-"

"You mean _my_ sword."

Blink.

"Whatever." He waved it off. That was a topic for later.

It wasn't even five minutes before the scarecrow was looking over the dead body of Zabuza Momochi.

That should have been more difficult. _Much_ more difficult.

Ten seconds later, he was staring at the decapitated corpse of the fake hunter-nin, surrounded by towering frozen pillars.

Bullshit that this guy wasn't very good with his Kekkei Genkai.

Seriously. Who the fuck was this kid?

* * *

 **Taichi**

After that whole debacle the previous day, I woke up a little after noon feeling like a million bucks.

There is _nothing_ like a good night's rest.

I woke up to a completely empty room, so I got dressed, and headed downstairs to find a little brat screaming at Naruto.

"Don't you get it?! You're all going to die!"

"Can I take a pass on that one?" I asked a little groggily, rubbing my eyes."Kakashi and I have tried that already, and let me tell you; it's not all that it's cracked up to be."

Kakashi's head nearly split space as it swung towards me.

I blinked. _Well fuck._

Oh well. I nodded at him and swung my finger around in a circle: _Later._

His eyes narrowed and nodded back.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto asked.

I tilted my head a little. "Eh? Oh hey! What's for breakfast?"

"Breakfast was five hours ago. We're about to have lunch." Sasuke said, looking all emo and shit.

"Any meal is breakfast as long as you have it at least two hours after you wake up." I said sagely.

"Gato's going to kill you all!" The twerp was still ranting about this?

I looked over to the kid. He was fuming. Well we were kind of ignoring him.

"I already said I wanted to pass on that. I'm not up for the whole 'Dying' thing." I said with finger quotes.

"Then leave!" He screamed.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Why would we do that?"

"Because Gato's going to kill you!"

"I feel like this is a circular argument."

"What's a circular argument?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke and Kakashi sighed.

It was then that I took a good look at Naruto.

He was an utter mess of a shinobi. His orange jumpsuit stood out on a completely _stupid_ level, and his brash and uncouth attitude destroyed any sense of professionalism. It was really an embarrassment to call this guy my cousin.

And he really was my cousin, if removed a few times. He shared a last name with my mother, so there had to be some connection.

I'd asked her why she never spoke up for the guy while I was in the academy, since I'd figured the Uzumakis would stick up for each other.

It seemed that I was mistaken there.

My mother was absolutely furious with the mere concept of caring for the "demon."

I won't lie, I lost a little respect for her when she said that, but she never told me to stay away from him either. She never heckled him like the rest of the village, but she did nothing to help him.

I mean I guess I can understand. She lost her husband to the Nine-Tails.

I lost my dad.

I still wanted to help him out a little bit though.

"Hey Naruto, I want to talk to you. Got a minute?"

He blinked at me. "Sure?"

He started to get up.

"Hey! I'm not done with you yet!" The little fuck-stick screeched.

"Listen twerp. Fuck off. I'm done with your shit." I stared him down. A silent rage started to build. "None of us are going to die. That bridge is getting built. Gato will die if he's as stupid as I think he is, and Wave will be nice and pretty again. Now go sulk somewhere else before I get all pissy."

"Mah Mah." Kakashi piped up. "That's enough, Taichi. You're scaring the little tyke."

I blinked at Kakashi, then looked back at the kid.

He looked positively _terrified._

Wait… Did he piss himself?

Kakashi must've seen my confused expression. "You were radiating killing intent."

Woah, seriously? I grinned. "Awesome! Didn't know I could do that yet." I looked over at Naruto. "Outside?"

He nodded.

* * *

Outside, I was sitting on a rock, just staring at Naruto.

"Um, Taichi-san…"

I blinked. Oh right. "So Sasuke's a dick."

Now it was his turn to blink. Then grin. "I know right?!"

I cringed. "And you're loud as fuck. Tone it down a bit, would ya?"

He immediately seemed a bit crestfallen.

"Oh don't look at me like that." I said. "I have something to show you. Make a clone."

He looked confused. "Why?"

"Oh just do it."

He did.

"OK. Now I'm going to go over there with your clone. I want you to stay right here. Got it?"

"Um… Sure?"

I nodded and walked the clone out of sight behind the house. "Ready?"

"Ready for what?" the clone asked.

Then I stabbed it in the face.

"What the fuck?!" I heard from behind the house.

"What?" I asked as I round the corner.

"Why'd you stab it? That fucking _hurt!_ "

I grinned.

"Now you're going to laugh at me?! What the hell, man?!"

"Question." I held up a finger, still grinning. "How did you know I stabbed your clone?"

It looked like he was about to answer, but suddenly stopped.

Confusion soon found it's way onto his face.

Still grinning, I explained the memory aspect of the Shadow Clone Jutsu.

"So you're telling me I can _train_ with my clones?"

I nodded.

"Huh."

* * *

"I want you to fight me." We were outside, and I was sitting on the same rock that I was talking to Naruto at thirty minutes prior.

That statement gave me a pause as I looked at the raven-haired bundle of emotional baggage.

Then I laughed.

And laughed, and laughed.

"What?"

I looked up to see rage plain on his face.

I managed to pull myself together. "You have a lot of self-importance in that little head of yours, don't you?" I asked in between catching my breath.

"What?!"

"Oh for fuck's sake, what is it with you people?" I sighed, regaining full control over my diaphragm. "You want _me_ to fight _you._ It's how you worded that. You make it sound like it's a god damned _privilege_ to spar with you."

"It _is_ for the likes of you." He spat.

"Oh? What makes you say that?" I narrowed my eyes.

"I'm an Uchiha. We're the best of the best. You seem strong enough to test my skills against. It _is_ a privilege to spar with me."

I stared at him for a few seconds. He seemed to actually believe that. "Well alrighty then." I looked up to the porch where Kakashi was looking down on us. "Don't worry, It'll only _look_ like I'm about to kill him. I'll fix him afterwards."

* * *

 **Sasuke**

This plebeian dared to insult an Uchiha.

Sasuke _knew_ that the Yamanaka boy was strong. That was the whole reason he wanted to fight, but now he was being looked down upon and that was _not_ something he could forgive.

The two genin stood there for a few minutes, then Sasuke rushed forward, intent to put the overconfident bastard off balance, only to swipe at empty air.

"Interesting first move." Taichi said from behind him.

Sasuke dashed away, and turned around, ready for return fire, but nothing came. Instead he saw Taichi picking at his nails, barely paying attention to him.

"I would have actually tried to hit my opponent, but I suppose that's where _the likes of me_ just can't understand the wondrous workings of the Uchiha mind."

Sasuke growled and rushed again, throwing a few shuriken on the way over.

Taichi deflected them almost offhandedly with his wrist guards and met Sasuke in a taijutsu bout.

Sasuke was throwing most of the punches, and could tell that Taichi wasn't even pretending to give this his all, which just served to enrage him further, so when Taichi kicked him into the air, he flew through the hand seals of his staple jutsu.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

A giant fireball roared towards the other genin, but within half a second it had dissipated completely.

It was only Kakashi - who was about to step in - that saw the _silent, and without hand seals_ variant of a water bullet that Taichi spat towards the fireball.

"Now now, Sasuke. We don't want to burn this lovely house down, now do we?" Taichi said, seemingly bored.

Sasuke landed, bewildered. _What the fuck happened to my jutsu?!_

"Fight me for real, damn it!" he screamed.

Taichi looked him square in the eyes. "Oh." He began. "Oh you want a _real_ fight, do you?" He started to walk closer. "Do you even _know_ what a real fight is?"

Was gravity getting denser?

"A _real_ fight, Sasuke, is a struggle." A shuriken blurred into existence, swiping by Sasuke's cheek, leaving only a crimson streak of blood behind. "A struggle where _life_ and _death_ are decided at the flick of a wrist." A kunai embedded itself into Sasuke's arm.

He yelled out in pain - or, at least he tried. He was getting smaller. Gravity seemed to be sinking his feet into the ground, and Taichi's voice seemed to emanate from all sides.

"Now Sasuke. I want you to remember something." Taichi was just a couple feet from him now.

He could taste salt, and knew it to be tears. His vision was getting blurry, but he couldn't pull it away from the growing terror in front of him.

"Can you hear me, Sasuke?"

He couldn't bring himself to respond.

Taichi lifted him up by his shirt collar. "I need you to listen to me Sasuke."

Still he couldn't respond, and he was slammed into the ground for it.

"Respond, Sasuke." Taichi's voice rang out, as sweet as death itself.

Sasuke could only whimper.

"Good enough, I suppose." Taichi's eyes beamed into his own. Those turquoise whirlpools seemed to be trying to suck his soul right out of his body.

"Now I need you to remember, Sasuke; overconfidence is a bitch, and that there is always. _Always._ Someone better than you."

The last thing Sasuke remembered before he passed out was Taichi's sickening grin.

* * *

 **A/N**

Trying out some perspectives. Let me know what you think of that.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.**

Please **do not** shove insults up my star-spangled sphincter.

 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N**

I went back and edited the first and second chapter. I added a bit to it, so I suggest a little re-read at some point. I'm going to go back periodically to edit more - add some details here and there, and fix up some of my previous mistakes.

As for reviews, I'm trying to reply! I just forgot who I've replied to, and who I haven't. My brain hurts.

Some people think that this is becoming a Gary-Stu story with how easily he took down Haku. I would like to take this opportunity to say that Haku was kind of shit. In canon, he got his ass handed to him by Sasuke, at least until he pulled out those ice mirrors. Even then, why the fuck didn't Sasuke just substitute out of there? Haku would have been like, "Well shit, now what do I do?" I mean I know you need to prepare something to substitute with, but he's a _Konoha_ nin. All hail the Log. Sasuke was _faster_ than Haku in normal taijutsu (Don't believe me? Go watch the beginning of that confrontation on the bridge). Now I've already explained that Taichi is faster than Lee. Lee is faster than Sasuke. Thereby Taichi is a fuck ton faster than Haku. Speed means _a lot_ in the Narutoverse. And that's not the only leg-up that Taichi had there. If you look at what happened between Taichi and Zabuza, all Taichi could do was dodge, even with his perception seal active. AND THAT WAS A WATER CLONE. Taichi has no confidence in actually beating Zabuza, even without his over-the-top butter-knife. Yes I know I had him at half-mast with that 30-hour trip from konoha, and he would have been able to put up at least _some_ of a fight at full potential, but he would have been split in two within ten minutes. Kakashi only had an "easy" time of it because that sword really is ridiculous, and he totally has a specific fighting style that hinges on it, so without it, Momo's fighting strength goes down. Then _all Taichi did was piss him the fuck off._ Angry people make stupid decisions. Enraged people overextend their punches, makes countering easier, etcetera. So Kakashi wooped ass, because he kept up what Taichi started. Make the idiot angry, damage his pride, and he will fuck up. And YES. I know I gave Taichi the butter-knife, but I'm addressing that next chapter.

Now on that same line of thought, Taichi will be able to _own his peers._ He is easily stronger than all of them, but I am pitting him against much stronger opponents than canon soon… Ok well maybe not _much_ stronger or too different, but where Naruto, Sakura, etc. fought with friends, Taichi is a bit of a lone wolf. He is the Itachi Uchiha of this generation, just without the Mangekyo. Taichi has no major biological leg-up in a fight. It's all speed, chakra reserves, and chakra control. And he basically says "Fuck you" to big jutsu so he can save most of his reserves for later. If this story was following Itachi, it would be the god damn definition of a Gary Stu with his stupid, overpowered eyes, and that's canon as fuck.

On the topic of speed, I'm working with Lee as a base for the average speed of a Jounin when he opens the gates. Gate 3, he's in ANBU territory. Now people on an ANBU level or above would be faster. I put Kakashi and Zabuza in the "ANBU" category. Taichi falls into high Jounin-almost ANBU, and he will hover there for a while (That gravity seal is a bitch to fill back up, so he won't be able to train it that much anymore).

So this is where I amend my previous skill tracking system to: Genin, Chunin, Jounin, ANBU, and Kage.

Now that my spleen has been properly vented, let's get on with this shizzle.

I don't own anything. Lawyers, please leave me alone.

* * *

So Killing intent was a _fantastic_ tool. I'd been messing with it, directing it towards squirrels and other critters before Sasuke walked up to me. All I had to do was spike the air with a little bit of intent-infused chakra. The more chakra, the stronger the effect. I'd also figured out that your thought process had a rather interesting effect on the intent: Say for example you were thinking "Kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill," the subject would simply run like hell, but if you were thinking "Don't move, or you die" the subject would remain perfectly still, trembling in fear. I wasn't entirely sure how a _squirrel_ could understand that, but hey. Whatever.

I stood up from the unconscious Uchiha, still grinning like a loon, after running over him with the Mystic Palm.

During the fight, I'd been radiating "You're useless." It wasn't even that malevolent. Just disdainful. The idea of death wasn't even involved, and it still carried.

"That was a bit overkill." Kakashi voiced from the porch.

I turned my head towards him. "Nah, he'll be fine." I said, waving him off. "That cocky attitude was going to get him killed one day. Public service, it was, to nip that in the bud."

"You're saying that you're not just as cocky?" The scarecrow raised an eyebrow.

"Oh I know I'm a smartass. Not the same thing." I gestured to Sasuke on the ground. "Pride's a bitch that needs to be put down."

Kakashi 'hmm'ed.

I looked over at him. "We should probably go somewhere where no one can hear us."

He eye-smiled at me. "Here's fine for now."

"If you say so."

Neither of us said anything for a good minute.

"You're a lot more skilled than I would have expected." Kakashi said, almost out of nowhere.

"Well… what's a good analogy?" Snap. "Gai!"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, probably hiding a wince at the mention of his 'eternal rival'.

"You could compare me to Gai. All I do is train. It's fun for me. I just started earlier than most people."

Kakashi sighed. "And here I was expecting a mini Niashi."

"Well to be fair, she _did_ teach me Kenjutsu from the ground up." I said, spawning one of my many tantos from the seal on my wooden hand. "And a few jutsu, but not much else." I sucked the small sword back into the seal. "I'd already had my physical training in the bag before we'd met, and my chakra control has always been crazy."

Kakashi gazed over at me with an assessing look. "How crazy?"

I blinked, and a shit-eating grin spread across my face. I held my left hand out and spawned a Rasengan. I couldn't use my right hand for it; being made of wood.

Kakashi's expression didn't change when he stared at the blue, buzzing sphere, but I distinctly sensed that he was too shocked to do fuck-all about it.

"About this crazy." I let it fizzle out.

A strange gurgle tried to make its way out of Kakashi's throat.

"H-how?" He finally managed to get out. "When?"

"Well I'd figured out the trick to it about four and a half years ago, I think? …It still eats my chakra up like a bitch, though."

"Who taught that to you?" He looked at me accusingly.

"Nobody." The accusing look intensified.

"No really. I just read about it and tried to recreate it." I itched my nose, then mumbled, "Took me _years_ to figure the damn thing out."

Kakashi was calmed down a little. I don't think he totally believed me, though. Having his Sensei's favorite meat-grinding Jutsu displayed evenly by a twelve year old with no formal training in it was probably a bit jarring.

Speaking of.

"You know, you should probably teach that to Naruto when you have the chance."

He lifted an eyebrow. "What makes you think I know how to do it?"

"Oh come on. You're the Fourth's student. No way in hell he didn't teach it to you."

The other eyebrow lifted. I guess he didn't realize I knew his background. "Well then why Naruto?"

"Isn't that obvious? The Fourth's kid should probably know his dad's signature-" I was cut off when Kakashi's hand grabbed my mouth.

"How do you know that?"

Know wha- OH! Fuck. I forgot that was an S-rank secret, wasn't it? It's been twelve years since I got here. My memory might be slipping on some stuff. Oh whatever. Play it off, Taichi.

"Mmmffhhmm" I said.

His hand was still over my mouth, so I licked it.

He got the point and removed his hand, and made sure that nobody was listening in, still.

"Know what?" I asked innocently. I was a bit miffed that he didn't react to the hand-licking.

"Naruto being the Fourth's kid. That's an S-rank secret."

"It is? The fuck? Really?" I didn't even have to fake my incredulousness. It was stupid. Anyone who looked at Naruto who met, or had seen a picture of the Yellow Flash at _any goddamn point_ would realize who he was.

I relayed the sentiment.

Kakashi's Sharingan eye was out already, spinning. I wasn't even sure when he lifted his hitai-ate.

I wasn't worried about being caught lying, mainly because as I just said; my incredulousness was totally real.

Kakashi seemed to think it all over, then sighed and covered up his Sharingan again. "Yes. It is, but now that you mention it, I can see the issue."

Welp dive in, Taichi. You're bored. It also helps when you don't have to skirt around this type of information. Might as well get it out into the open that I know.

"I suppose that means the whole 'Nine-Tails' thing is a secret too, huh?" I paused. "Oh for fuck's sake, don't look at me like that. That one was even _more_ obvious."

"You're going to have to run me through that." His gaze was downright threatening.

I could _probably_ get away if I had to… Well maybe not. This was _Kakashi._

I sighed. "Well when most of the village treats him like shit, then refuses to tell you why, you start to wonder even harder. That, plus the fact that he was born the _very day_ that the Nine-Tails attacked the village, and his name is Naruto _Uzumaki?_ Really? Could it have been spelled out in bigger characters? Even if he _wasn't_ Kushina's son - who was basically the Fourth's Wife, right? Which we already established he was. Anyway, if he wasn't their son, the Nine-Tails has _always_ been sealed inside an Uzumaki. So they probably would have given him the name in honor of the clan just for being the Jinchuriki."

Kakashi just stood there for a second, mulling that all over. "How do you know about the Uzumaki stuff? I didn't even know that."

"Oh. Huh. Well it was written in a scroll my mom had. She's an Uzumaki." I pointed at my red hair. "I figured all this out _years_ ago." That last was true at least. I'd watched the anime like fifteen or so years ago, towards the end of my last life.

"Hmm. Well all of that is S-rank. Don't talk about it unless you want to be beheaded." The Nine-Tails thing probably wasn't that important - too many people already knew the secret. As for Naruto being the Fourth's kid, that was a bit more information than Kakashi probably wanted just hanging around, but he seemed to get my point well enough to not make a huge deal of it.

Eugh.

"Yeah… Anyway, back to the Rasengan. You _really_ should show that to Naruto. I know you're probably going to want to hand the Chidori over to Sasuke at some point, so just do the same for Naruto while you're at it."

Kakashi gave a noncommittal grunt.

We sat there for a few more minutes.

"I heard that you were going to start Sakura on puppetry?"

"Listened in on that?" I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, once she wakes up. Unless you had a better idea?" Despite everything that had happened today, it wasn't even noon yet.

"No that works for me. I was going to start them all on tree walking, but I think Sakura might have a little trouble with that at the moment."

Oh!

"Hey, speaking of learning and all that, I was wondering if you could show me something real quick?"

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "Sure, I guess?"

I smiled. "The 'Hidden Mist' thing that Momo did yesterday. Looked useful."

"Oh?"

"It's more for vanity purposes. I like to scare the shit out of people, if you haven't noticed." I pointed over to Sasuke, who was still passed the fuck out, face down on the ground.

Kakashi chuckled and agreed. I figured he was interested in doing that as well. A _scared_ opponent is even easier to take care of than an angry one.

In the next half hour he performed the copied Jutsu a couple times so I could get a feel for it. Then he described how he moved his chakra, and took me through the handseals - which I couldn't use, having only one real arm.

All-in-all, I got a pretty good idea of the jutsu, and resolved to get it down later. I started making some progress towards the end of that half hour though, which seemed to surprise Kakashi.

"You said you started training earlier than most?"

I nodded and looked up to the sky.. "Yeah, I started learning fuinjutsu when I was two and a half. Everything else started when I was four. Having a full adult mind when I was a toddler was a pretty big boon."

Kakashi 'hmm'ed.

"So, how old are you?" he asked.

I was about to answer, but then I saw where he was going with that. "About thirty-four." I sat back on top of my rock. "Yourself?"

"Thirty-nine."

I blinked. Wait a minute. He was twenty-six, or seven in this body, which meant that he died when he was only… what? Twelve or Thirteen?

"Shit balls."

"Itachi's Seventy-Six."

I couldn't help it. I laughed so hard I fell off my rock.

We talked a little after that.

Somehow the conversation skipped over to the mission.

"None of this is going to stop until Gato isn't a factor anymore. Whether he decides to leave, or dies, I _highly_ doubt that he'll leave these people alone voluntarily." I paused. "I mean shit, he'll probably just blow up the bridge after it's built if he's smart."

Kakashi nodded. "The fact that he hired someone like Za-" I gave him a pointed look. "-Right." He chuckled. "The fact that he hired someone like _Momo_ to prevent its construction in the first place begs the idea that he _isn't_ that smart. It's expensive to hire a missing-nin on his level. Much cheaper to buy explosives."

"... How much you wanna bet he'll show up at the bridge personally next time?"

Kakashi blinked. "Nobody's _that_ stupid…"

* * *

"You're telling me that you've _never_ used chakra strings?"

Sakura looked a little confused. She _had_ just woken up. I had to use the Mystic Palm again to get rid of more pain.

"Oh you're in for a treat. Chakra strings are goddamn amazing." I was grinning like a loon.

I spawned a couple kunai out of my projectile seal and grabbed them with chakra strings, making them float in front of me.

"You can do all sorts of shit with these things. The best part is making stuff float, but that can be pretty reserve-exhausting if you're not careful."

She nodded. "So that's where we're starting? That's how the puppets move?"

"Yu~up! OK. First pool your chakra at your fingertips. You can throw a string out of any of your tenketsu, so when you get your new leg, you can base the strings out of the nub. However, it's easiest to start with your fingers, so…" I made a 'get to it' motion.

Sakura held up her hand and after a second she nodded.

"Good, now keep that there for a second. Get a feel for it."

"Alright."

"OK, so chakra strings are shape manipulation at its base. It's easy, really. Just imagine the chakra in your fingers is connected with your target, and throw it out." I held up a pebble. "Try to grab this out of my hand."

Her eyebrows scrunched together. It took her a few tries, but at the fourth attempt she finally threw out a chakra string. It didn't connect with the pebble, instead hitting me in the face, but that's progress.

"Sorry about that." Sakura blushed.

"That's alright. You're getting the hang of it." I pulled a scroll out of my pouch and tossed it to her. "That was my first puppet. When you think you've gotten enough practice with moving a pebble around, try using more than one string to move the puppet."

* * *

We'd been in Wave for about a week. For the past few days, we'd been taking turns on the bridge - Sakura not included as she was working with her new puppet.

I'd made it a point to always have a clone on the bridge with whoever was on duty that day. It was a good thing I did, too.

"Two shinobi. Other side of the bridge." My clone said. We weren't expecting any more resistance after Zabuza, so this was pretty surprising.

"What? Really? Finally I get some action!" Naruto yelled.

My clone blinked. "Well alright. Today's your day, but I'm calling in the cavalry anyway."

"...What's a caflary?"

Really? Did he even have to butcher the pronunciation? Ah whatever. My clone made another clone, which immediately popped, sending memories back.

"You're the front-liner today, buddy. I pop in one hit, so let's see what you can do with me as backup."

Seals didn't transfer over on Shadow Clones, and clones weren't as strong or fast as the original, so my clone's capabilities were pretty limited, and I didn't make it with a tanto in hand, so it didn't even have a weapon.

Pure Taijutsu it was, then. I was fast by myself, but I couldn't use the body flicker in battle without the perception seal.

Ugh. I hate having to be careful. I'm more of a bulldozer kind of guy.

"Alright, first thing's first. Naruto, make a bunch of clones and have them body-switch with all the workers. Get them off the bridge."

There was no way in hell anyone other than a Jinchuriki could have done something like that. The chakra cost of replacing yourself with _another person_ is kind of nuts. It takes about as much out of me as a Rasengan does. The fact that Naruto can do that shit without breaking a sweat - _on top of it being_ clones _that are actually doing it -_ was _fucking_ unfair, as far as I was concerned.

Naruto grinned. "On it!"

In the next second there were about fifty or so clones, and in the second after that, all of the bridge workers were there instead.

"What the fuck?!" I heard from the bridge.

"Clones? Shit, I thought we were up against twerps?"

I got a good look at them then. They both wore almost identical Kiri gear, and had very forgettable faces. The only interesting thing about them was that one had bright blue hair, and the other had dark green.

Naruto was about to jump down and join his clones in the fray, but I stopped him. "Hold on, Naruto. Lets let the clones judge them a bit. See what we're working with."

He pouted, but nodded along anyway.

The next minute or so was a bit worrying.

Naruto's clones got slaughtered.

These guys were on the mid to higher end of Chunin.

Well.

"Alright. Naruto, I'm going to need-where'd he go?" I looked over at the bridge to see a slightly larger number of clones all throw a handful of shuriken at the two missing-nin. One of the Narutos threw a kunai with an explosive note attached.

There's the real one, the little fucker.

Sneaking away from me. God damn it.

I jumped down and bull-rushed up next to him as he began his charge, and joined in.

One of the missing-nin caught and tossed the exploding kunai off the bridge, making it explode harmlessly in the water. Well, harmlessly for us. There was probably a lot of dead fish down there.

The clones were getting popped one by one.

I managed to jump inside Green's guard and knock him off stance to let a Naruto clone pummel him in the face. I barely had enough time to get out of there before his buddy came in for a swing.

We managed to keep that going for all of a minute or so; my clone going with hit-and-run tactics, while Naruto clones swarmed and tried to get any hit they could.

Then Blue went down when Naruto punched him in the throat, which gave me enough of an opening to grab one of his kunai and dislodge his head from his shoulders.

But then Naruto got decked in the face and sent into the water.

The only reason I knew it was actually Naruto was because all of his clones popped after that.

Crapbaskets.

Well at least we got it down to one of them.

"You're dead." Green said gruffly. I think he was mad that I decapitated his friend. I didn't want to break it to him that I was also a clone. It would hurt his feelings.

I grinned, twirled the dead guy's kunai and got into a ready stance. "Come on, cupcake. Don't keep me waiting."

He growled, and I just grinned bigger.

Then we flew at each other. I was doing my level best to parry _everything_ and avoid any kind of direct forceful contact. I didn't want to take the risk that blocking a kick would pop me. It was the same reason why I was only attacking with the kunai; I didn't want to get popped if _he_ blocked _me._

My goal here was to stall for as long as possible, to buy time for the real me to get here, but if I could somehow get in a killing blow, I'd take it.

It had been a grand total of about five minutes since we'd started, so I needed a way to stall a bit better. Unfortunately most of my repertoire of skills relied on seals, a little more chakra than I could give away, or a sword.

Being a clone sucked. Especially since my right arm was _still_ made of wood, even as a clone, so I had to expend a little chakra to keep that shit working as well.

Clones were not meant for long-term taijutsu battles! Come on, Me! Hurry the fuck up!

Then a body bolted out of nowhere and landed on top of Green, swiping a small sword across his neck.

I blinked. The newcomer looked pretty familiar.

"What took you so long, boss?" I said.

"Had to stop for milk. We were out... Wait, why am I sassing my clone. Go away."

I grinned, and popped myself.

Agh. Clone memories always screw me up if they've been around too long.

I looked over the railing of the bridge to see Naruto just breaking the surface. "Naruto, I know you need a bath, but the middle of a fight is not an acceptable time to take one."

* * *

I have stolen an idea! The idea that killer intent is active once you throw chakra into the air and think something malevolent came from _Dreaming of Sunshine_ by Silver Queen. I've expanded on it, though.

As far as I've thought this through, Taichi will get two more additions to his skill set, and that's it (Not counting random Jutsu). The first of these things goes along with the killer intent thing. The next one will have to wait a while.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my bum.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N**

Chapter 3 has been looked over, and fixed up. A reviewer going by InARealPickle has pointed out some flaws that I will be going back to and fixing up in my earlier chapters at some point. Unfortunately he is no longer with us because he has an extreme dislike for puppetry. Sucks, I know; especially since it's barely a feature of the story so far.

*Shrug*

I don't own Naruto. I _do;_ however, own a cup that has recipes for various mixed drinks printed on it… So I have that going for me.

* * *

Sasuke was avoiding me.

I thought it was hilarious.

Our little bout seemed to have the desired effect as well, in that the broody twit stopped being such a stuck-up ass hole.

Hell, even _Naruto_ couldn't find a reason to get pissed at him anymore.

I called that a win.

As the bridge neared completion, Kakashi and I started talking more and more about the mission. There hadn't been any shinobi resistance past Blue and Green, and I strongly suspected that wasn't for lack of trying on Gato's part.

It's just that no missing nin in the area would willfully pit themselves against Kakashi.

At least that was my hypothesis.

Kakashi and I ended up coming to a decision a couple days before the bridge was supposed to be finished: if Gato didn't show himself, we would find him and end the problem. There was simply too much a risk of him using explosives once we left.

Konoha had a bit of a reputation that we wanted to keep, and simply letting the bridge explode once the mission was over was a pretty unacceptable outcome.

There were a few more hired thugs that tried to attack the bridge after Naruto and I took care of Green and Blue, however they were easily dealt with by Sasuke.

I had an inkling that Gato was waiting for something, because he was barely making any more moves.

That inkling was proven correct on my last turn to guard the bridge. In canon, the whole team should really have been there, but I offered to take bridge duty so that everyone could train up a bit while they had Kakashi's attention. The Log knows that the scarecrow would abandon those idiots to their own devices as soon as they got to the village.

Anyway, that's how I found myself staring at a small army of thugs on the other end of the bridge. It looked to be about double the mob size that appeared in canon… about a hundred people? Ish?

Gato probably panicked a little when we took down everyone he sent so decisively. Too bad he had absolutely _no_ sense of how strong a shinobi actually was. To the average Joe, numbers meant everything, but to a shinobi, numbers didn't mean jack shit. Unless, of course, those numbers consisted of more shinobi.

I jumped down to the architect. "Tazuna, you might want to get your guys off the bridge."

"Why's tha- Oh fuck." Tazuna said, turning around to see the small army. "We're doomed."

"Oh ye of little faith, have hope." I paused, then shrugged. "Or don't. I don't care, but get these guys off the bridge."

He blinked at me, then looked around. "Wait, where are your friends? Is it just you?"

"Yup, just little old me." I said with a grin. Everyone was starting to notice the mob and hauling ass in the other direction.

"Everyone! Get the hell off the bridge!" Tazuna yelled just now realizing that he was supposed to be helping.

A bit late, there, bud.

A couple minutes later, all the workers had skedaddled, and I was alone, standing in front of Gato's gang of grizzly groupies.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A voice rang from the middle of the group.

Oh my god. Was I _finally_ on the receiving end of a cliche evil monologue?!

I grinned in anticipation.

"A little brat, all by himself." The crowd parted to let the fat midget through. "Where are your friends, kid? I thought they'd be here too."

I shrugged. "Funny story, that. You see we were on our way here, and one of them suggested ice cream. Long story short; I don't like ice cream, so here I am."

"Wait, you got ditched so your friends could go get ice cream?" One of the thugs asked.

"Yup!" I smiled at him, while everyone else looked at him like he was an idiot.

I mean he _was_ an idiot, but that's besides the point.

"Whatever, just kill him." Gato directed the mob.

I pouted. So much for the monologue.

They barely got to take a step forward before I threw out my intent with about half of my chakra in the air. Blanketing everyone. _You move, you die._

That was the most chakra I'd ever thrown into my intent, but I needed it to cover the whole area, and affect everyone in it. These were only civilian thugs too, so they didn't have as much resistance to it as a shinobi would have, however they were hardened adults, which meant that they did have some resistance.

Not enough to make a difference though.

They were all stopped in their tracks. Abject horror reflected on every face.

I waited a beat. "So this is the messy part." I summoned Kubikiribōchō from my projectile seal. The giant sword fitting into my hand nicely.

Ever since training with my gravity seal, my overall strength shot through the roof, but even then, I would have had trouble hefting the immortal blade. It was really only because of the strength boosting bodily enhancement seal that let me move it around like I wanted to.

I still hadn't had the chance to practice with the sword in combat yet, but if I wanted to get anything out of this test, I had to cut down on their numbers first. Hence the giant waste of chakra with my intent. These were peons, but their numbers would make things difficult if I was only using the new sword, so if I could get them to stand still for a few seconds, I would be able to thin them down a bit.

I wound up and _hurled_ the sword into the crowd, aiming directly for Gato. I wasn't going to give that bastard any chance at all to leave here alive.

The best analogy I could give was that it resembled a weed-whacker.

I couldn't keep up that massive intent blanket for too long, so I had to drop it when I threw the sword, but even then, hardly anyone could dodge in time.

The sheer momentum of the solid hunk of _sharp_ metal was enough to cleave a line through the middle of the group, splattering blood, internal organs, and limbs as it went.

I flipped my perception seal on, and flickered to the back of the crowd in time to suck the blade back into my projectile seal - there was no way in hell I was going to try and catch the thing - and spawned it again.

That roughly took out fifteen of them, Gato included. Let's try that again.

I flickered to the side of the crowd, on the edge of the bridge overlooking the water, and repeated the throw, long-ways through.

They were still stunned from the intent blanket. God I love stationary targets.

That one managed to cut through about double the amount of people, but the momentum broke before it could go further, dropping the blade in the center of the group.

I flickered in to grab it, then spun with it to open up a circle in the crowd.

I sucked in some air.

Breathing room established. "Come at me, bitches."

All Hell broke loose.

None of these people were skilled in anything close to combat. They relied on sheer numbers and the liberal use of pointy things to get their way.

Any Konoha Chunin worth their salt would be able to carve up this lot like a Christmas turkey if they took it slow and from a small distance.

Any Konoha _Jounin_ would be able to straight up slaughter them like a kid stepping on an ant hill.

I might have had Jounin level speed and strength, but skill?

No.

I opted for the Jounin approach anyway.

Everything must have happened too fast for most of them to realize what was going on. All they knew at this point was that they were supposed to kill me, and I was pretty sure that they were reacting on just that at this point.

Screams of pain, rage, and fear tore through the foggy landscape as the mob descended on me.

I might have been laughing like a lunatic when I twirled my giant sword in a swirl, cutting people in half, two at a time. I'm not sure. Blood pooled on the ground and in my clothes as the bodies piled up. Internal organs spilled out among the carnage, making odd squishing noises when I or any of the thugs stepped in them. Granted the sound of clanging metal was almost enough to drown it out.

At this point it was getting a little hard to move around all the dismembered bodies, so I used an instance of Wind Release: Air Burst to clear some space and flickered through the crowd with Kubikiribōchō in front of me, effectively cutting down everyone I passed at body-flicker speed.

When I landed, I was still in the crowd and was able to continue the slaughter.

About Five minutes of more blocking, dodging, slashing, and stabbing found me without any more targets.

I stood there for a second, not truly believing that it was over.

Fuck I was tired. I leaned on Kubikiribōchō for support. My chakra reserves were almost depleted from constantly flooding my system for endurance and strength purposes, as well.

"Woah. That was fun." I took a deep breath to calm myself, and resealed my giant sword. I took a look around me and winced.

That was a _lot_ of dead people.

Welp. It's my mess, I guess. Gotta clean it up.

About five minutes into the clean up is when Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke all appeared on the bridge.

I didn't notice at first, as I was still dragging the various detached limbs into a giant pile in the center of the bridge. I accidently stepped in someone's intestines along the way, which was met by a disgusted sound from Naruto, alerting me to their presence.

"Oh hey guys. Thought you were training? What's up?"

* * *

 **Kakashi**

Tazuna almost ripped the front door off the hinges when he busted through the house.

"Bridge." He huffed, trying to pull in as much air as he could. "Your brat-" He coughed.

"Mah, mah," Kakashi began, "Breath, Tazuna-san."

Tazuna shot him a glare. "No time! Gat-" Cough, "-o brought a-" cough, "An army." He bent over and put his hands on his knees. His face flushed with over exertion. "The brat's-" huff, "Still there."

And with that, Kakashi was out the door, Naruto and Sasuke were slower, but they knew the way to the bridge.

It didn't take him long to get there, not knowing what to expect. He knew that Taichi was frankly ridiculous for his physical age, but he didn't know what he was up against. The word 'army' could mean practically anything. Army of what? Common thugs? Were any of them ninja?

Kakashi was seriously regretting the fact that Taichi talked him into training his team more.

An army of common thugs weren't really an issue, Kakashi knew, but if there was even _one_ ninja hiding in there, it could spell trouble.

However nothing could have prepared him for the sight that he was met with when he finally got there.

Dismembered corpses littered the bridge. Not _one_ was left whole.

Blood ran like rivers, dripping over the edge of the bridge.

Someone's liver laid squashed under a footprint.

And a small _child_ was gathering it all together into a pile.

Said child was drenched in blood: hair dripping red droplets, and clothes dyed a deep crimson. He was soaked to the point that his skin was barely visible.

Kakashi didn't even notice that Naruto and Sasuke caught up to him when Taichi turned around.

"Oh hey guys. Thought you were training? What's up?"

* * *

"Welcome to the Metal Leaf! Let me know if you need help finding anything!" A voice rang out from the back of the shop when I walked through the door.

"Sure!" I called back.

Team Seven and I had just gotten back to Konoha, and debriefed with the _Hokage._ I was not used to that. Most mission debriefs were quick and simple with a chunin from the missions desk. On top of that, you only ever _got_ a debrief if there were complications during the mission. All other times, you would just fill out a written report, and submit it.

I'd had plenty of debriefs with the old fart before, however that was only because he made an effort to be in contact with the new genin as much as possible. He really was everyone's weird, dependable grandpa with a pointy hat. So basically, once I was around for a couple months, contact with my village leader was slim to none.

So yeah, it was kind of weird to meet with him after a mission, even if it was a bit of an excessive jump from C to A-rank.

After that, I said 'later' to Team Seven and started making my rounds of the weapon shops in Konoha looking for a kenjutsu style for big-ass swords. I think I managed to get everyone to forget that I had the giant butter-knife. Kakashi hadn't said anything about me keeping it, and it wasn't even in the reports that I'd kept it. So yeah, I was pretty sure everyone just forgot about it.

I mean they _did_ just leave it at Momo's grave in canon. Nobody even bothered to grab it until Sasuke's friend that was made of water (I forgot his name) took it off of the grave four to five years later.

I didn't understand why nobody cared about the thing, but I was totally down to keep it if nobody actually gave a shit.

The shinobi section of the library didn't usually have anything for kenjutsu styles, unfortunately. Anything that related to weaponry was exclusive to the weapon shops for reasons that nobody would tell me.

In short, I couldn't find what I was looking for. Anywhere.

Who knew ninja didn't usually use big-ass swords? This was the third shop I'd searched through, and still nothing.

I got up to leave, but was stopped.

"Leaving already?" the voice from earlier said from around one of the weapon racks.

I turned to find a cute brunette with twin, chinese-style hair buns, a light pink vest, and hitai-ate on her forehead.

I paused for a second. "Well I'm looking for a kenjutsu style scroll for big swords. I didn't see anything in the scroll section, so unless you know where I can find one, yeah; I'll be leaving."

"Big swords?" She tilted her head to the side.

I nodded.

"How big?"

"About seven or eight feet long, two wide."

She gave me a skeptical look. "Well besides the fact that a normal sword of that size would buckle under it's own weight, you don't exactly look like-" She cut herself off and looked at my hitai-ate. "How old are you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Twelve."

She paused, then nodded like she suddenly understood something. "Listen kid, I know how strong the lure is of having a crazy weapon, not to mention the fact that having a big-ass sword would do wonders for making a name for yourself, but something that big's just not feasible for normal weaponry." She leaned her elbows on the counter. "Especially for a newly graduated Genin."

Newly graduated? OH! People usually graduate at twelve, don't they?

I smiled at her. "Hold on. You're cute, but I think you just made three assumptions in that pep-talk that need to be addressed." I held up a finger, and she blushed. "First, I graduated two years ago. My age has nothing to do with it. If I remember correctly, you were in the graduating class directly under me? So last year… May?" I held up a second finger. "Second, I've already made a name for myself." I didn't elaborate, and held up a third finger. "And finally, who said anything about a ' _normal'_ sword?"

At this point her entire face was bright red, but the confusion induced by the last part seemed to wipe away the embarrassment. "What do you mean?"

I looked around at the cramped shop. "I don't want to take it out here. Might knock over a shelf or something."

"Take it out here? You have it on you?"

"Of course. Anyway, can you help or not?"

"Help?" Pure confusion morphed to realization. "Right! Style scroll. Well no, I don't think we can sell you anything like that, but I might be able to help if I can see what you're working with. I'm a bit of a weapons enthusiast." She tapped a finger on her lips. Then got up and walked to the door to flip the sign to 'Closed'. "Follow me." She said, and walked towards the back.

"Won't your boss get mad if you close up shop?" I asked as we walked through a small hallway towards the back door.

"Nah, business is pretty slow this time of day." She turned and winked at me. "Plus, if I can help, I'm charging you."

I chuckled. "Is that so?"

"Yup!" She grinned and opened the back door.

The back of the shop actually opened up into a small copse of trees with plenty of room to move around.

"This should be enough space." She said.

"Well what do you think you can do to help?"

"I need to see what I'm working with first, so…" She made a 'come on' gesture.

I smiled and held out my puppet arm, accessed my projectile seal, and brought out the giant sword, letting it crash into the ground.

The girl stared at the huge slab of metal for a good thirty seconds, mouth wide open.

I was beginning to think that I broke her.

"I-is that what I think it is _?!"_ she pointed accusingly at the blade.

"A big hunk of metal? Yeah. I want to figure out how to-"

She cut me off. "Is that _Kubikiribōchō_?!"

"Bless you."

"I didn't sneeze, you dork!" She shook her head. "Is that the Executioner's blade? One of the Legendary Seven Swords of the Mist?"

I grinned. "Well, I _did_ kind of steal it from Momo-"

" _MOMO?!_ You mean _Zabuza Momochi?!"_ She took a deep breath "How in the ever-living _fuck_ did you steal _that_ from _Zabuza Momochi?!"_

I was having trouble keeping in my laughter. "Well he kind of attacked us on our last mission, so now he's dead-"

" _ **YOU KILLED ZABUZA MOMOCHI?!"**_

I couldn't hold in the laughter anymore. It was too much.

"Stop laughing and answer me!" She had this crazy gleam in her eye, like she legitimately couldn't process what was being told to her.

I had to choke down a half-sob, holding my stomach. The tears were streaming down my face. Oh holy shit, I haven't laughed like that since my last life.

I tried to catch my breath to answer. "N-no, I'm not the one who killed Momo-"

"Then how'd you get the sword?!" She was acting completely put-out.

I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, finally getting a hold of my diaphragm. "I stole it before the fight started, then sicced Kakashi on him."

"Kakashi? The copy-nin?" She calmed down significantly at the new information. It seemed that the fact that Kakashi was there made the whole thing more believable.

I nodded.

"Wait, but why'd they let you keep _that?"_ she pointed at the sword.

"Dunno." I shrugged "But now it's mine, and I'm going to learn how to chop people in half with it." The more I thought about it, people in the Naruto world barely gave two shits about legendary swords. I mean take for example the guy who stole the Sword of the Thunder God and defected to Ame. Konoha barely lifted a finger to retrieve it, and the guys at Ame just let him _keep it._

"Can you even pick that thing up?" The girl asked.

Right now? Sure, but I couldn't use it. I had Naruto fill my gravity seal up on the way back to Konoha, so the damn thing felt like I was lifting a car. Not to mention that hefting the thing knocked my max speed down a few notches, even with my gravity seal released. It was fucking _heavy._

I flooded my whole body with chakra to help compensate for the gravity seal, and grabbed the hilt, bringing it up to bear.

She blinked. "Well that's impressive."

I grunted and let it drop back down.

"Doesn't seem like you can swing it around though."

"Let me worry about that." I sucked it back into my projectile seal. I would be able to swing it no problem if I released my gravity seal.

"Wait," she looked at the seal on my hand. "What's that?"

"Storage." I shoved the hand in my pocket. "Look, so can you help me or what?"

She was still looking at my hand, but answered anyway. "Well yeah, actually." She looked up and our eyes met. A light hazel, more on the brown side. "Like I said, I'm a bit of a weapons enthusiast." She held up a finger. "Wait here for a minute." She ran back into the store before I could say anything.

It didn't take too long for her to come back out with a scroll in hand.

"The owner - my boss - has a few contacts that work through Kiri." She began. "I managed to buy this off of one of them." She held out the scroll to me.

I picked it out of her hand and looked it over.

The scroll didn't have anything in regards to title or name, so I just opened it up.

Inside, there were seven sections, each depicting the beginning forms for one of the Seven Mist swords.

Words wouldn't form on my lips for a good few minutes.

"How did you get this again?" I finally got out.

She shrugged. "Well the guy I bought it from said this is a common scroll in the Mist Academy. Apparently they get everyone to practice these basic forms and the Seven Swordsmen pick apprentices based off of that."

I nodded. I guess that made sense.

"Obviously it doesn't teach everything. But it's a place to start." She said, obviously happy with herself.

I half-frowned. "How much?"

"Nuh-uh! That's not how this is gonna work." She held up a finger, then pointed it at the scroll. "That's mine. Not for sale."

I was about to respond, but she cut me off.

"Go to Training Ground Twenty in four hours. That's when I get off, so we'll work on this then."

Mouth still open from a cut-off response, I raised an eyebrow.

She reached over and shut my jaw with a finger. "Don't stare agape at me yet, handsome. I haven't even helped you yet." She grabbed the scroll from my hands. "Now make like Hashirama and Leaf. I need to get back to work."

I chuckled and let her push me out back through the store.

"The name's Tenten, by the way." She said once we got to the entrance.

I smiled. "Taichi. Nice to me-"

She slammed the door in my face.

* * *

 **A/N**

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism**.  
Please **do not** shove insults up my ass.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N**

This is short! I just wanted to add Tenten's perspective to that last scene.

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

 **Tenten**

She watched him as he browsed the scroll section.

He was dressed simply; black, lightly padded vest over a ninja-wire shirt, dark cargo pants, metal chain-link gloves, and flexible boots instead of sandals.

Really the only thing that stood out about him was his bright red hair.

He wasn't especially good looking, but he was definitely easy on the eyes, and he walked with a purpose. He knew what he was looking for - not just in the shop, either - in life. There was a sort of confidence that emanated from him.

She immediately didn't like him.

He reminded her too much of her Hyuuga teammate, who walked with the same confidence and disregard for the world.

He was probably some big name clan kid with an ego the size of Konoha itself.

She saw him put down the scroll he was looking at and head towards the exit.

"Leaving already?" she asked. This was the best weapons shop in Konoha, if she couldn't point him at what he wanted, it wasn't in the village.

He turned to look at her.

She finally got a good look at his face. Small, yet full lips, clear skin, and bright Turquoise eyes that almost looked backlit.

"Well I'm looking for a kenjutsu style scroll for big swords. I didn't see anything in the scroll section, so unless you know where I can find one, yeah; I'll be leaving."

Yup. Ego the size of Konoha.

"Big swords?" She asked. What, like a claymore?

He nodded.

For fuck's sake. "How big?" Dumbass.

"About seven or eight feet long, two wide."

 _Hold on, what? That is much bigger than 'big'._ "Well besides the fact that a normal sword of that size would buckle under it's own weight, you don't exactly look like-" She cut herself off. _Try not to offend the kid, Tenten._ "How old are you?"

"Twelve."

 _Ah, fresh from the Academy. Might as well give him some advice._ "Listen kid, I know how strong the lure is of having a crazy weapon, not to mention the fact that having a big-ass sword would do wonders for making a name for yourself, but something that big's just not feasible for normal weaponry." She leaned her elbows on the counter. "Especially for a newly graduated Genin."

He smiled at her.

 _Oh. That smile is a_ dangerous _weapon._

"Hold on. You're cute," _Did he just call me cute?_ "but I think you made three assumptions in that pep-talk that need to be addressed." He held up a finger. "First, I graduated two years ago. My age has nothing to do with it. If I remember correctly, you were in the graduating class directly under me? So last year… May?" _… Yeah._ He held up a second finger. "Second, I've already made a name for myself." _Well alright. Now I have to do research._ A third finger. "And finally, who said anything about a ' _normal'_ sword?"

Her face was bright red. "What do you mean?"

He looked around the shop, as if judging the space. "I don't want to take it out here. Might knock over a shelf or something."

"Take it out here? You have it on you?" That meant fuinjutsu. So he was either rich enough to buy storage scrolls, or he could make them.

"Of course. Anyway, can you help or not?" _Definitely bought those storage scrolls._

"Help?" Pure confusion morphed to realization. "Right! Style scroll. Well no, I don't think we can sell you anything like that, but I might be able to help if I can see what you're working with. I'm a bit of a weapons enthusiast." She tapped a finger on her lips.

 _If it's as big as I think it is, I might be able to do_ something.

She got up and walked to the door to flip the sign to 'Closed'. "Follow me." She said, and walked towards the back.

"Won't your boss get mad if you close up shop?" He asked as they walked through the back hallway.

 _He actually cares enough to ask that? Maybe his ego isn't_ that _big._ "Nah, business is pretty slow this time of day." She turned and winked at him. "Plus, if I can help, I'm charging you."

He chuckled. "Is that so?"

"Yup!" She grinned and opened the back door.

She loved the back of the shop; it was one of the few that actually had a sizable space behind it.

"This should be enough space." She said. _Even an eight-foot sword could swing around comfortably here._

"Well what do you think you can do to help?" _Confusion looks_ adorable _on him._

 _Did I just think that?_

"I need to see what I'm working with first, so…" She made a 'come on' gesture.

 _Oh god, not that smile again! Wait, where did that come fro-_

"Is that what I think it is?" She asked.

* * *

"The name's Tenten, by the way." She said once they got to the entrance.

A quirk of his lips, and those turquoise orbs sent a shiver down her spine. "Taichi, Nice to me-"

She slammed the door in his face, turned around and slid down against it.

 _He really needs to stop smiling at me._

* * *

 **A/N**

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my ass.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N**

This one is also short. But hey, quick updates. I basically count this and the last one as an addition to chapter 16.

Gooest brought up some good points in his/her/whatever review about Niashi being a bit of a cunt. If you have issues with how I've written Niashi (Taichi's Sensei), Taichi's interactions with her, or how the village treats the student/sensei relationship, just know that I am going back through everything and trying to fix it up. Might take me a while. I _am_ still new at this.

There is a reason why she acts like that, I just haven't gotten to the part where I explain it. You people are right, though. There needs to be more repercussions to her actions - as the story stands, but I plan on going back through and making her a little… less negligent.

I don't own Naruto

* * *

I arrived at Training Ground Twenty a little late.

"You're late." She said with a pout.

I cocked an eyebrow at her. "You slammed the door in my face."

She pouted harder and puffed her cheeks, adorably.

"Forget it." I chuckled, shaking my head. "So you wanted to help me with the big hunk of metal?"

"You mean Kubikiribōchō?"

"Bless you."

She sputtered. "I didn't sneeze, damn it! It's the name of the sword!"

I grinned and she… blushed?

"Stop doing that, too." she mumbled after a second.

"Stop doing what?"

She looked up, surprised. Was I not supposed to hear that? "N-nothing! Nevermind! Come on, take out Kubikiribōchō-"

"Bless y-"

"STOP IT!" She slammed her fists down by her sides.

The next few hours were filled with me just swinging around the big-ass sword. We didn't even touch the scroll - well, I didn't. That was Tenten's shtick, apparently.

Her philosophy was that I needed to build up the strength to move it around how I wanted before I even touched the style for it.

I tried to argue on the basis of my gravity seals, but she wouldn't hear it - as in she cut me off whenever I tried to explain. I ended up just giving in. It'd be nice to be able to use the sword with the seal active, though next time I would probably just add more chakra to the seal, making it impossible to use the sword all over again.

Ugh. Well back to swinging the sword arou-

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" A foot collided with my head - or well, it _tried._ I blocked with the sword, but even then I was sent skidding about ten feet away.

"Hello my YOUTHFUL comrades!" A figure clad in green posed in the spot I'd just been standing in, then turned to me. "Impressive block, friend!"

Tenten groaned and looked over to me. "Sorry about him."

I raised an eyebrow at the newcomer. I knew Lee was eccentric, but I kind of hoped that it would be a little less… loud, in real life.

"You must be Green Beast Jr." I stated, resigned to having my afternoon ruined. I hate loud things. I mean, we're _ninja_ for fuck's sake.

Tears burst from his eyes… (How?) "You've heard of me?!"

"You've heard of him?" Tenten blinked.

"Kind of difficult _not_ to hear him." I winced and dug a finger in my ear. "Yeah. Taijutsu specialist that can't use nin or genjutsu? But still kicks ass anyway? Talk of the town when you graduated the Academy." I leaned on my sword.

"Oh yeah. Lee, Taichi-kun graduated the year above us."

He looked at me for a second, then pointed at me. "I remember you! You were in the year below us, but on the second day of classes, they moved you up two years!"

I nodded unenthusiastically. "Uh-huh."

A lightbulb seemed to go off in his head. "We should get our teams together for a YOUTHFUL training session!"

"That was a little out of left-field, Lee." Tenten pointed out.

"But think about it! With the Chunin Exam coming up, it would only help us to pit our YOUTH against each other in friendly competition!"

Tenten sighed. "This is because he blocked your 'Dynamic Entry' thing, isn't it?"

Lee smiled brightly. "Precisely!" Then he turned to me. "What do you say, Taichi-kun?!"

My head had reflexively turned towards the hospital when Lee mentioned my team. "I don't think my team would be up for it."

"Nonsense!" Lee shouted. "There's nothing more YOUTHFUL than friendly competition!"

Tenten was looking at me with an unreadable expression, then she noticed which direction I was looking. "Lee…"

"I'd be happy to train with you guys, though." I got out before Tenten could continue.

Lee pouted. "Well how about I talk to them, then?! I'm sure I could convince-"

"LEE!" Tenten cut him off. "We'd love to train with you, Taichi-kun, if you can make it." She looked at me apologetically.

I gave her a sad smile. "Thanks. Anyway, what can we do for you, Lee-san?" I asked.

Lee looked between us, confused and put-out, then blinked. "AH! I must steal Tenten from you, Taichi-san! We have a mission!"

She slapped him upside the head. "Say that sooner!" She turned to me. "Keep working on moving that thing around. We'll work on the actual style when I get back, alright?"

I smiled at her. "Sure."

She blushed, and I heard her mumble a "Please stop doing that" under her breath.

Then they both left, and I was alone.

* * *

"Kaa-san!" I yelled from the fuinjutsu desk in our living room.

"What's up, Tai?" She answered, peaking out from the kitchen, wiping her hands down.

"Oh, hey. I need help with this." I pointed at the workbook in front of me with the back of my brush.

"Gimme a minute." I heard some clanging around, then a bit later she came back out. "Alright. What's the project? Another revamp of the Projectile seal?"

I'd changed my Projectile seal around a couple times in the past few years. Just changing a couple little, specific activation triggers, storage space, and adjusting the power and cost of it's use.

I hadn't made too many new things. The last one I'd finished was a variation of a chakra suppression seal that just sucked all of the chakra out of the area until it filled up and exploded. Granted that explosion happened really fast, because it was sucking up _nature chakra_ as well.

Essentially it was a glorified explosive note. I named it the Implosion Seal…. Yeah, I know. Nothing was _imploding,_ but… whatever. It sounded cool.

"Not this time." I pointed at the seal again with my brush. "New tattoo design. I want it to boost my killing intent." I'd been working on this one since beating up Sasuke in Wave. It was a toughie.

She looked at me. "You can use killing intent? Already?"

I nodded without looking up. "I'm having trouble with the mind-integration, and power source."

She looked over at what I'd built so far. "Well scrap the Hiraku configuration. Shindra is the most stable for mind-integration."

"Yeah I know that, but I needed a way to separate myself from the power source."

"Which is?"

"Nature chakra."

"What?!"

"Hey!" I put my hands up. "It's the only thing I can think of that's feasible. My own chakra supply won't work for long term stuff, and I want a _boost_ too."

She was still staring at me incredulously.

I pouted. "This is why I asked for help."

She huffed. "Yeah…" then looked back down at the seal work. After a couple minutes, she spoke again. "Have you tried the Tuume star points?"

"With the Hiraku? It won't work with the Shindra."

"No, it would have to be something in Category Three."

I nodded. "The Yuga configuration then." I scribbled it down. "That's the most stable. Now it has to be Triangular, doesn't it?"

Kaa-san nodded. "I'd prefer a Hexagonal structure, but that amount of complexity would screw with the mental-link."

"Wait! Yuga allows for a split system, doesn't it?"

She snapped and pointed at me… Then shook her head. "Yeah, but the Tuume Points would be unstable because they're already split."

"Yeah, but what if I used a shielding script as the base instead of-"

"That might work." She cut me off. "And it would help keep you separate from the nature chakra, but it would be much harder to control."

"But what if I only used it around the stars?"

Her eyes scrunched together. "Yeah! OK. Use Gurun on the stars, but use Tsuki for the rest." She nodded to herself. "They're compatible, and it should boost the effects nicely."

I nodded, and ten minutes later, I had a prototype.

We tried it out right then, but the effects weren't as powerful as I wanted.

Two days later found me in one of the training grounds and staring at a passed out squirrel.

"YES! IT WORKED!" Granted, it took a lot more chakra than I was expecting - about a shadow clone's worth to make a squirrel pass out, even with Nature chakra taking the brunt of it, but IT WORKED! I did a little dance, but was stopped abruptly.

"Hello, ANBU-san. Can I help you?" I asked, not daring to move.

There were twelve of them. All standing in the trees, weapons drawn.

Half of them were looking at me, the other half were searching the surrounding area.

"We detected a massive burst of unfocused killing intent centered on this location. Did you sense anything?"

I blinked. "Ah. Yeah sorry. That was me."

Instantly, every head zeroed in on me.

"Come again?" The lead ANBU said.

I clicked my tongue. "Testing out something new." I held up the seal on paper. "All it does is boost my killing intent."

They just stared at me.

"We thought that was a tailed beast, kid." One of them said.

"Whoh-ho, seriously?" I sputtered. That was _much_ more powerful than I was expecting.

They just stared at me some more.

"Can you make more of those?" Another asked, and a couple others nodded.

"Unfortunately not. I had to key this to my blood _and_ chakra to make it work." They looked visibly disappointed.

The reason why that was an issue, was because in order to key something to your blood, or chakra, you basically had to draw it up yourself, and _understand_ what they hell you were drawing. That required learning a _lot_ of fuinjutsu.

It's part of the reason why nobody has been able to use the Flying Thunder God like the Fourth Hokage.

"Well, we have your intent signature recorded now, so this shouldn't happen again, but _please_ don't use that in the village again unless you have to."

Well, once I had it tattooed on, I would have significantly more control over it. So yeah, this wouldn't happen again.

I smiled and nodded anyway.

* * *

 **A/N**

STOP. Don't bite my head off. That intent thing is not as OP as it sounds.  
OK, it's OP as fuck against anyone mid-Chunin and under. But after that, it's only enough to give them pause for a second. Think back to the Nine-Tails attack. Every ninja in the village was fighting that thing, and it was radiating the worst killing intent _ever._ If you can move under that, you can move under Taichi's new toy.  
However… Will the kids be able to take it? Especially if it's directed on them individually?

 **Rest assured, he will not use it all the time. This is for crowd control and sadism. Nothing more.**

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my ass.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N**

So it was brought to my attention that - in canon - clones work at significantly reduced strength compared to the original. I knew that, but I didn't know the extent. So basically, for this fic just assume that all clones (of every type) works at about 75-80% capacity. In Taichi's case (with strength and speed), his clones work at about high Chunin level, where the original hovers around high Jounin.

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

OK. So I couldn't tattoo the intent booster seal on my body. Essentially it came down to the fact that it wasn't compatible with all of the other seals that were there. As it turns out, the body enhancement seals used Nature Chakra as a source of power. All except for the Perception seal, which didn't really _enhance_ anything, per-se; it just slowed down my sense of time. Kind of like how a slow motion camera just takes _more_ pictures, _really_ fast.

Nature Chakra was finicky as all hell, but could be tamed through a number of means, and just because Fuinjutsu was one of those ways didn't mean that I could solve the issue through it.

It wasn't for lack of skill, either.

Essentially, it boiled down to the fact that all of those seals on one medium destabilized the whole system. The seals' job was to pull Nature Chakra into themselves, where it would be converted, and channeled to do their job. However, if there were too many, Nature Chakra would begin to seep into my system _directly._

Which would be bad.

This is where you might think that this is a cheat for Sage Mode. You know, how normally you would have to sit still to gather Nature Chakra, but with this, it was just flooding into your system all the time.

Yeah, no. That's still _really_ bad.

To keep Nature Chakra from turning you to stone, you need to meld it perfectly with your own chakra, and _keep_ it melded.

That requires a _completely stupid_ amount of focus - _all the time,_ enough Chakra in your own system to balance with the _infinite amount_ of Nature Chakra, and the ability to work with the volatile chakra in the first place.

The reason why I know all of this is partly because of the anime, but also because we _tried_ to tattoo the damn thing on. After half of it was on, all of the others started to _burn._

Red hot.

As in they started to _glow_ red.

It hurt.

My mom had to skin the tattooed area off with a kunai to get them to stop.

That hurt more, but thanks to the recovery seal, the skin grew back within a couple days.

That's about when she started to explain the rest of it. Apparently these seals were based off of the physical boost that Sage Mode gives you. So yeah, I'd been in a knock-off Sage Mode for the past few years. Surprised me too, when my mom took me through the theory of it. The only thing that I couldn't do was manipulate Nature Chakra. Which, to be honest, is the crux of Sage Mode.

Without the ability to manipulate Nature Chakra, the seals just left me slightly more durable than the average Joe. However, now I'd gotten a taste of Nature Chakra.

Not going to lie; I kind of liked the implications, so I started putting a plan together - one that would hopefully let me fight against some of the top dogs in this universe.

 _Hopefully_.

I knew from the beginning that I would never be able to fight someone like Madara. I don't have any bullshit cheat abilities like the Sharingan, but hopefully with this, I would be able to _not die_ against him.

It would take me a few more years to get to that level, though.

For now though, I needed to find a place to put the Intent Booster seal. I couldn't tattoo it on my body, but I could still use it if it was printed on some other medium. So what I ended up doing was taking my hitai-ate from my belt, drawing the seal on the back, and stitching it into the collar of my vest - the leaf facing behind me.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't have full control over the seal because it wasn't directly on my skin. That basically meant that I could still direct it and use it how I wanted, but there would always be overflow to the surroundings.

"You've been avoiding me." A voice said from behind me.

I sighed. "Hey Sensei. What's up?" I _was_ avoiding her.

"Besides the fact that you took a backup mission? _Without me?"_ She gave me an exasperated look.

"Hey," I put my hands up. "It all worked out alright. Nobody died."

Her eyes narrowed.

"... Okay yeah, a _lot_ of people died, but nobody on our side!"

She kept up the glare for a second, then sighed and let her head droop. "Damn it, kid. You were up against Zabu-"

"Momo."

She blinked. "What?"

I shrugged. "I call him Momo."

"... Really?"

I nodded.

" _Really?"_

I nodded again.

"To his face?"

I just smiled.

"You cheeky little twit." A grin split her face. "How are you still alive?"

"Magic." I wiggled my fingers. "And I'm twelve. I'm supposed to be little." She glared at me. "But really though, what do you want? I'm busy." I actually was, too. I'd just started trying to get down the beginnings of fire manipulation - trying to burn a leaf with just my chakra.

Part of my master plan was learning all of the elements, which I knew for a fact would take me years, even with my ridiculous learning curve.

Shinobi weren't necessarily restricted to the element of their chakra affinity. Each element could be learned if enough time and practice was put into it, it's just that an affinity made that process ten times faster. Most people just kept with their affinity because they'd rather be an expert at one thing than be a Jack of all trades, master of none.

Now I wasn't exactly a crazy Ninjutsu user, and I never really planned on being one - despite my massive chakra reserves - so being a Jack of all trades in Ninjutsu fit my style perfectly.

People had made it work in the past, too.

For example, the Third Hokage was legendary because he _mastered_ all five elements, and Kakashi had copied nearly a thousand jutsu, and could use them all regardless of element.

My precedent was set, so I knew it was possible. Now all I had to do was go about training them the way a proper shinobi would.

In other words; cheat my ass off.

I was currently sitting in Training Ground Seventeen, as it was one of the few with a lake. If I caught fire, it would be easier to put it out with an available water source.

Anyway, I was sitting on the grass by the lake, surrounded by twenty clones who were all trying their damndest to burn a leaf with Chakra. I also had another three clones in the library reading up on fire manipulation scrolls.

None of them were using a particularly large amount of chakra, so I could feasibly train with them for - at the very least - the beginning stages of elemental training.

I was having trouble, and it was annoying me.

"Another Chunin exam is coming up." she stated simply.

I sighed.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. You like being underestimated as a Genin. The novelty of you being the strongest genin in the village is starting to ware off though."

Despite how it looked, I _wasn't_ waiting to take my Chunin exam with Team Seven. First of all, I had no real interest in going up against Orochimaru, and second; there was frankly nothing I could do to change anything beyond what I'd already done - which was leave some anonymous information drops at designated drop-off points. I'd included pretty much everything about the invasion that I could remember from the anime.

To be honest, I didn't give a shit about being a Chunin, because if I racked up my reputation, I would be put on higher level missions anyway. Plus I was actually making more money as a Genin than I would as a Chunin.

Sounds counterintuitive, but true nonetheless. There were a _lot_ of people who were requesting me for various missions. Most of them were simple and quick, so I could take a good number of them in a short time. It was mostly just delivering letters and such, with the odd rescue mission, or escort. So that equated to about thirty to forty C-rank missions a month. I'd been taken off of the D-rank roster completely after my first year.

The reason why I would earn less as a Chunin was because my price for hire would increase by default. I would see a massive drop in my client base because of that - not everyone can afford to hire a Chunin - and I would be expected to take longer term, more difficult missions.

The difficulty level didn't bother me, but the fact that I would have to limit the _amount_ of missions I was taking would put a damper on my budget.

Well, on paper I would be making more as a Chunin, but that would take a few months and a steady flow of B-ranks, and I couldn't afford the lack of income - no matter how short-lived.

"Or is this somehow about Mai and Shiro?" She asked after a second.

I must've flinched or something.

"It is." She continued with a sigh. "Are you afraid that they'd somehow be upset with you for getting promoted?"

I blinked. "What? No, no." I shook my head. "Not that."

"Then what?" She crossed her arms.

I sighed and explained the financial situation.

She cocked her head to the side. "What could you possibly need that much money fo-" She cut herself off. "So you're the one paying Mai's hospital bills."

I gave her a sad, half-smile. She's cleared me to do the more simple C-ranks by myself a good while ago. The village needed its elite Jounin back, so she didn't really have a good idea of how _many_ missions I'd been taking. All I ever told her was that I was keeping myself busy, and she seemed OK with that answer.

"I was wondering who- alright. No. I'm nominating you for the exam. You're going, and I'm picking up the bill for now."

"Sensei-"

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"Fine! Damn it!" I gave in.

* * *

So it turned out that the team she matched me up with was Team Seven - sans Sakura, as she was still missing a leg, and would need to get used to a puppet limb before she could do anything more.

I'd been periodically going back and helping her through the basics every now and then since we got back from Wave. She picked up chakra strings pretty quickly, so I took her to Lost Limb Lumber a few days after we got back, and bought her a basic leg.

Honestly, I felt a little bad about it. She never lost a limb in canon, but with me there…

Yeah, so I bought her a new leg.

She still wasn't ready for the exam, but Sasuke and Naruto were getting restless, and Kakashi still wanted to give them something to work towards, so Sensei and him came up with the idea that we would work together perfectly.

Yeah OK. Sure.

"You're really shit at this, Sasuke." I sighed.

He scoffed.

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted. "You keep ignoring-"

I cut him off. "You're _both_ really shit at this." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Sasuke, you need to stop assuming you can do everything by yourself." I turned to Naruto. "And you need to stop being a fucking idiot."

He sputtered.

We were trying some of the more simple team formations against Niashi-sensei, since Kakashi was nowhere to be found.

That's not to say Sensei wasn't having fun kicking our asses, but hey.

Sensei was letting me do the directing for the most part. Said something about building character.

I looked over at her. 'Build character' my ass. She was laughing at us.

"OK, OK." Sensei said, clutching her sides in laughter. "I need to go. Mission." She looked at me. "Try to get those two to work together. They would make a pretty damn good duo on the field if they got it down."

And then she was gone.

"For fuck's sake." I grumbled. "Alright you two. We're doing two on one. Sasuke." I gestured at him "You're the leader for this one. Make something up that you think would work against me and tell it to Naruto."

He gave me a skeptical, and slightly apprehensive look. Probably having a flashback to our last fight. I was handicapped this time though, with my gravity seal, so it should be more even.

"Why do I have to listen to this bastard?!"

"Oh shut up. You're making the plan next." I snapped.

He grumbled but complied.

I walked over to the edge of the clearing to give them space to plan.

About five minutes later, we were standing again.

"Ready?" I asked.

Sasuke nodded, and Naruto got into a stance, looking unhappy.

"Go." I said.

Naruto threw up a hand seal and a dozen clones were suddenly rushing my way.

Some of them tossed a few shuriken, which I bat aside with my wrist guards - I couldn't absorb those because they were technically clone constructs. Then I redirected a punch that was aimed at my face.

Sasuke was rushing in with the clone group, so I made my own couple clones, which started to fend off Naruto's group.

When Sasuke reached me, he threw out a low sweeping kick which I met with one of my own. Our chakra-enhanced shins met with an audible crack of the air _,_ and I saw him wince slightly before he spun with the force of my kick and aimed a jab at my face. I knew nothing was broken or fractured. We didn't put _that_ much force into the kick.

I made a circle with my forearm, moving the jab to the side, and reached in to grab his wrist. He tried to break my grip immediately, so I let go and aimed a jab at his gut.

He seemed surprised that I let go, and couldn't avoid the punch in time, so was sent sprawling backwards.

Then I reached down and grabbed a couple handfuls of gravel and threw them up around me.

"Wind Style: Air Burst." I said and all the gravel pelted outwards, popping all of the clones - including mine - and knocking Naruto and Sasuke backwards.

I was dumbing myself down slightly so that they could react in time. I had two years more experience with actual combat. Technically speaking, Sasuke and I were equal in taijutsu. I just surprised him when I let go of his wrist in that last confrontation.

I looked out over the field to find Sasuke and Naruto both laying on the ground.

"Really guys? A straight charge?" I asked. "Sasuke, I can see your reasoning, and it wasn't terribly done, but you used Naruto as a distraction instead of a teammate."

Naruto grunted on the ground, and Sasuke seemed like he was trying to ignore me.

"Try to trust him with a bigger role." I finished, then looked over at Naruto. "Your turn, and try something a little more creative this time. Maybe you'll last longer than fifteen seconds."

He grinned at me. "You got it!"

Five minutes later, we were all at attention again.

"Go." I said.

Honestly, I was expecting another blatant charge, but that's not what I got. Instead, Naruto bolted for the trees, leaving Sasuke and me alone in the clearing.

I raised an eyebrow at Sasuke, while he got into a fighting stance.

Looks like he was trying to delay me, then.

"Well come on. I haven't got all day." I said.

He took that as a cue to rush me.

I easily flowed into my Flowing Lotus style, using my forearms and wrists to redirect his strikes. Then he used the momentum of my counter-strike to spin up and over me, trying to catch me in the back with a kick. I dropped forward, grabbing his leg with the both of mine, locking it and swinging him overtop of me, slamming him into the ground.

He spun, breaking my grip and did a handspring off of the ground before I could smash him into it.

We took half a second to regain our bearings and look the other over.

We were pretty even, really. I mean I was under a _heavy_ handicap with my gravity seal active, and a mental promise to only use what was used against me. So far, only taijutsu was in play.

A telltale _wurr_ in the air brought my attention to a group of shuriken headed in my direction from the tree line. I backpedaled, ducked, dodged, and deflected them all just before parrying an axe-kick from Sasuke.

He didn't even lead up to it. Just straight _axe-kick._

Who does that?

Suffice it to say I was a little pissed off. I mean, that was a move that needed to be set up at the end of a combo for maximum coolness, but Sasuke jumped the gun completely.

After parrying, I grabbed his leg and flung him into the air, where he dug into his pouch and flung a large handful of shuriken at me.

I deflected them the same way as the last batch, but that's when I noticed the wire that connected them.

Then Naruto appeared out of nowhere.

A lot of him.

"Woahfuck!" I blurted, and dodged a beamer to the face, and uppercutted the clone that sent it.

It was about here where I realized Naruto had henge'd clones into shuriken, and tossed them as the first salvo so they'd litter the field.

Then I realized that the other clones weren't attacking me.

They'd picked up the wire that Sasuke had thrown earlier, and _pulled._

A complex web of ninja wire sprung up around me, even cutting off my exit from above, and was closing in on me fast.

I was _impressed._

Then it started to get hot. I looked up to find Sasuke spitting fire along a wire line. A _surprisingly_ flammable wire line.

I flipped my perception seal on so that I could see it all more clearly, and looked around at their handywork.

There were a few glaring holes in the net, but that was kind of nitpicky of me. To be honest, the whole plan was incredible. It wouldn't do anything to anyone with Jounin level abilities, but it would wreck _house_ in a Chunin field.

I sighed and pulled a kawarimi with a log just outside the clearing, letting the flaming net of doom _rip_ into the log. It was a charred husk in a matter of seconds.

"OK!" I called out. "That's enough."

"Dammit! We almost had him!" Naruto grumbled.

We met in the middle of the clearing after a minute.

"So," I began. "What did we learn today?"

I was met with a blank look from Sasuke, and a confused one from Naruto.

"Well, let's start with the fact that Naruto is a fucking idiot-" He sputtered, and Sasuke smirked. "- but when it comes to battle plans, he's a goddamn genius." I paused for a second. "Sasuke however, is great in a straight fight, but can't plan a battle for shit."

Sasuke's smirk died.

"So what do we do with that information?"

More blank and confused stares.

I sighed. "Alright, so I'll spell it out for you: If we're in a tight spot, Naruto, you'll be the one making the plans, but plan for Sasuke to be the frontrunner."

"What?! Why?!" Naruto yelled.

"Stop yelling." I glared at him, and he wilted. "Put simply, Sasuke's better than you in a fight. You're just relentless, which isn't the same as efficient."

"What does that have to do with anything?" He asked.

"Everything if you want to get home _alive_."

He grumbled. "Well, what about _you_ then?"

"I'm not part of Team Seven." I answered simply.

"You are for the exam." Sasuke answered.

I nodded at him. "True, and not to toot my own horn, but I'm on another level. You guys will be working together much more than with me. In the exam, include me in the plan, but understand that it will be mainly you two with me as backup. We're working on _your_ teamwork here, not mine."

"Hn." Sasuke responded. "Well what now?"

I grinned at him. "More drills."

* * *

 **A/N**

I'm tired, so I didn't edit this one as much as I usually do. Sorry about any mistakes. This was more of an info-drop chapter than anything else, anyway.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my ass.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N**

Longer than usual chapter, but it's only one scene...

*Shrug*

Not much editing went into this one. I'll fix it up at a later point.

I don't own Naruto

* * *

"Yeah! Just like that!" Tenten cheered.

I brought my giant sword down for another swing at the training dummy, cutting it in two. The most difficult part of using the thing was getting my footing right. I just needed the correct leverage for all of the large sweeping motions I was restricted to.

Surprisingly, the style for the sword was incredibly free-form and open to improvisation.

Tenten's scroll stressed the idea that everyone who had ever used the sword did their own thing with it. I wouldn't have an issue with doing that, because I was already familiar with the kenjutsu style that Niashi-sensei taught me, so I wasn't learning from scratch.

It just sucked that the damn thing was nearly twice my size.

I _was_ still twelve.

The sword wasn't feasibly usable with my gravity seal active, and I wasn't about to release it just to make my life easier. It was a total bitch to fill back up, and I didn't want to keep going back to Naruto every time.

However, with the proper leverage, chakra enhancement, and continuous movement, I could keep it suspended and effective with minimal effort.

Well, it still took a _lot_ of effort, just less of it.

I brought the sword to the ground, and huffed. "Well I'm done with that for now."

Tenten nodded at me. "Yeah, I can't really say that you've mastered the forms, but you're definitely getting there."

I gave her a tired smile and sucked the sword into my projectile seal.

"OK seriously, what is that?" She asked, exasperated.

"What's what?"

"That!" She pointed at the seal on my glove.

"My storage seal?"

She nodded. "It's too small to fit Kubikiribōchō."

"You know fuinjutsu?" I asked.

She smiled proudly. "Been teaching myself for a few years." Her smile turned to a frown, and there was an involuntary downward quirk of my lips as I watched her smile disappear. "I know enough to realize what you're doing shouldn't be possible."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well you obviously don't know a lot, then."

She gave me an offended look, and put her hands on her hips. "Oh yeah, smart guy? Why's that?"

"Well for starters, you just implied that something wasn't possible with fuinjutsu." I smirked at her. "Inherently, that single thought makes you a total novice."

She tried to look more offended, but curiosity took over. "What do you mean?"

"What I mean, young padawan, is that _anything_ is possible through fuinjutsu. It just requires a lot more effort to find a solution than reasonably necessary."

She blinked at me. "What's a 'padawan'? Should I feel insulted?"

I shrugged, and grinned at her. "Probably. Anyway I'm not breaking any rules with my projectile seal here. I just found a couple loopholes."

"Projectile seal?"

I sighed. "I really need to find a better name for it."

"So it's not just storage?"

"Hmm? Nope."

She blinked. "Well, what else can it do?"

I grinned. "Plenty of stuff." I pointed my palm at a tree on the edge of the clearing, and shot a kunai out of the seal.

The kunai embedded itself into the tree, making the wood around it crack and splinter.

I looked back at her to find her jaw on the floor.

"... How?! What? … Wait, you have kunai in there too?!"

I held up my hand. "I have a lot more than kunai in here." Then spawned a tanto, gave it a swing, and put it back in.

"You can pick what comes out?" She was staring at the complex seal on my hand.

"Of course."

Her face scrunched up. "Where did you get the design?"

I blinked. "I made it myself."

Her eyes moved to mine so fast I barely saw the movement. "You're a fuinjutsu _master_?!"

I itched behind my ear. "I thought that was obvious."

She sputtered, like she was trying to find words to say, but they just wouldn't come up.

Then finally, "Teach me." She said firmly.

"Come again?"

"Teach me." She said again.

I stared at her for a good few seconds. She had the most determined look on her face, but her eyes held such unadulterated _hope,_ but beyond that, there was a deep seeded fear of rejection.

To be honest, I already knew I was going to agree. Her expression made my - admittedly cold - heart clench. She looked at me like I was the answer to all of her problems, and I just didn't have it in me to refuse to throw her a life-line.

She still needed to know what she was getting into, though.

"You know fuinjutsu takes time, right? It's not _easy."_

She nodded quickly. "I know. I'm not an idiot. I've read through almost everything that the library has on it."

I shook my head. "Scrolls won't be able to teach you nearly enough."

"Please." Her hazel eyes started to glisten. "Please, I'll do anything."

I quirked an eyebrow at her, but her expression didn't change.

I sighed. "Why?"

Her eyebrows scrunched together. "It's one of the few things I'm good at. I'm a weapons expert, but I can't compete against top-tier shinobi with just that."

I looked at her incredulously. "So you jump straight to the hardest to learn skill - _that there is_?"

She gave me a sheepish look. "I don't have the chakra reserves to be a ninjutsu specialist, my control isn't good enough to be a med-nin, and I can't focus on close-range combat because of my team dynamic. I'm stuck with mid-to-long range techniques for the most part. I'm not part of a clan, so I don't have a skillset to fall back on, and my sensei focuses on my other two teammates way more than me."

I blinked. Now that I thought about it, Gai barely taught Neji and Tenten anything, did he? All of his attention was on Lee, so the only thing that really carried over was his work ethic.

My distaste must have shown on my face.

She waved her hand back and forth. "Don't get me wrong, my sensei is great! I never would have gotten this far without him, but I'm mainly self-taught."

I brought a hand up and rubbed my forehead. "Alright fine," Her face lit up like the northern lights, "but you need to follow _my_ pace. I don't have an unlimited amount of time to teach you."

She squealed and tackled me to the ground. "Thank you!"

"Sure thing." I grunted under her weight.

We stayed like that for half a second, then I felt her tense and scramble off of me.

"S-sorry." She said, blushing.

I just chuckled and sat up.

"HELLO THERE!" A voice said from directly behind me.

"Jesus Fuck!" I cursed, jumping to my feet, and turning around.

Gai stood there and pouted with his hands on his hips. "Such unyouthful language!"

"Well, don't sneak up on me like that!" I said, a little put out.

His smile widened. "I'm a shinobi! I'm supposed to sneak up on people!"

I just blinked at him. The concept of Gai being able to be quiet - _ever -_ didn't compute.

Tenten sighed from behind me. "Taichi-kun, this is my sensei."

I nodded. My brain was still stuck in some sort of infinite loop.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete, Taichi.

"What's a 'Jesus'?" Gai asked.

"A pretty cool dude." I replied with my arms crossed. "Nice to meet you, too."

"Can I be a 'Jesus'?" Gai asked, looking hopeful.

I blinked. OH, he thought it was an adjective, not a name. "Well can you walk on water?"

Tenten looked at me strangely.

"Of course!" Gai exclaimed.

"Then congrats, Jesus-sensei."

"ALRIGHT!" He screamed, and did a happy dance.

I curled my lips in against my front teeth and scrunched my eyebrows. _This man confuses me._

"What does walking on water have to do with being a 'pretty cool dude'?" Tenten asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Objectively? Almost nothing." I responded, but that just seemed to confuse her more.

HA!

"You do know that he's going to make us all call him 'Jesus-sensei' from now on, right?" Tenten whispered in my ear, like she was trying to keep the idea from spreading.

Goosebumps.

Holy hell, the goosebumps you get when a cute girl whispers in your ear.

I shivered and turned to look at her. She was leaning so far in that our noses brushed.

She immediately turned red, and backpedaled a couple steps. "Sorry."

"It's uh…" I felt a little heat in my cheeks, but shoved down the embarrassment. "It's alright." I ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah, he's gonna have a blast with that one, won't he?"

Tenten took another second to recover from her thoughts, then just sighed in response - giving into the inevitable.

"YOU TWO ARE SO CUTE TOGETHER!" A voice rang out from a few feet away. "OH HOW I WISH I COULD FIND-" By the time I turned around, Tenten was already there, decking Lee in the face.

"Shut _UP_ Lee." Tenten breathed out.

"Good!" Gai shouted. "We're all here!"

I turned back around to see Gai posing heroically next to a rather annoyed Hyuga.

Tenten and I had arranged a time where I could meet up and train with Team Gai.

"Sensei," The Hyuga began, "must we train with this…" He looked me over. "Boy? I doubt he reaches our standard."

"That's no way to talk about a comrade, Neji!" Gai scolded, pointing a finger in the boy's face.

"The sentiment doesn't change, though." Neji replied.

"He's pretty good, Neji. Give him a chance." Tenten scowled.

He turned to me. "That remains to be seen."

"Alright, pretty-boy." I drawled. "Why don't you take that stick out of your ass for a few minutes? You make a pretty crappy first impression."

"NEJI?! YOU KEEP A STICK IN YOUR BACKSIDE?!" Lee yelled. "THAT CANNOT BE HEALTHY!"

Neji glared at his teammate. "I don't understand why we're training with him in the first place. He's going to be in the Chunin exam as well."

I saw that Gai was about to answer, but I cut him off. "What do you want to accomplish in the Chunin exam?"

He looked at me like I was an idiot. "To become a Chunin. Obviously. Same as you."

"Ah!" I held up a finger. "I don't give a rat's ass about becoming a Chunin."

"Then why are you taking the exam?" He asked accusingly.

"My sensei is making me, but that's besides the point."

"Then what's the point? As far as I can tell, this training session just serves to let us gather intel on each other."

"That's the point." I tapped my finger in the air. "Right there. We're all Konoha shinobi. We're on the same team. I'm _supposed_ to know how you guys work, just as you're _supposed_ to know how I work." I gestured to the village as a whole. "That's how all this _shit_ works. How else are we supposed to work _together_ in the field?"

"Wonderfully put, Taichi-kun!" Gai said proudly. "Though I would have preferred less cursing."

"That's different." He said.

"No it's not." I replied.

"Yes it is. The Chunin exam is the point where we weed out the weak. Where the strong are given the chance to rise above the rabble."

I chuckled. "No, the exam is just that; an _exam._ They're just trying to figure out if we all have what it takes to be a Chunin. The competition between us is a tool to that end, not the end goal. How would Konoha - or any hidden village for that matter - survive if they fostered nothing but competition?" I snapped my fingers. "Case and point: The Hidden Mist. They're stuck in a civil war, and that's because they have a system very close to the one that you're imagining _we_ have."

He was quiet for a few seconds.

"That still doesn't make you _or_ your team our match. We need worthy sparring partners." He looked around. "Where are they, anyway?"

"Not here." I replied curtly. Nobody had asked about my team since I last saw Lee, but I didn't expect that to last. It wasn't like I was hiding it, but I didn't really want to talk about it.

"Well how are we supposed to do team training when one of the _teams_ doesn't show up?"

My eyes narrowed. "It's pretty hard to show up when you're dead."

"D-dead?" Lee choked.

I glanced at him. He looked stood next to him, holding her hands over her mouth, eyes wide.

I bobbed my head to the side. "Well mostly."

Neji's eye twitched. "Well if they're… Then who are you taking the exam with?"

"How can-... Mostly?" Lee asked. We ignored him.

"Kakashi's team." Gai spoke up, his voice more serious than I ever expected it would be. I looked at him for a second. I was wondering why he didn't interject into the conversation earlier, but it seemed he was content to let us figure it out ourselves.

"One of their members took a hit, so she's out for a while." He continued.

"Then why aren't they here?" Neji asked.

I shrugged. "Simple. _They're_ not in your league. Yet."

"And what makes you think that _you are?"_

I looked over at Gai with a raised eyebrow. "Can I kick his ass yet?"

"You versus Neji?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Seems a tad unfair, doesn't it?" He said.

Neji smirked.

"For Neji?" Gai finished, and the boy's smirk died.

Gai knew me by my reputation. Niashi-sensei once told me that the Green Beast tried to get me on _his_ Genin team a couple years ago. Something about liking my work ethic. He was ultimately declined, but it's the thought that counts… I guess.

"I've got a handicap, so we should be relatively even."

"Handicap?" Tenten asked.

I nodded. "Gravity seal." I pointed to my tattoo.

"WHAT?!"

"What's a gravity seal?" Lee asked.

"Just the most _dangerous fucking thing_ you can train with!" She answered. "I read about them, but they're _stupid_ advanced."

I raised an eyebrow at her, then turned to Lee. "It's kind of like your weights, but for your whole body."

"What makes it so dangerous?" he asked. "Wait, how did you know I wear weights?"

"A whole _lot_ of things." Tenten began and raised a finger. "First, the fact that you've _tattooed_ it on your body. When it comes to Fuinjutsu, that _alone_ is the most dangerous thing you can do: one slip up, and you're just a puddle of blood on the floor." She held up a second finger. "Second, it's a _gravity_ seal! Mess up the amount of Chakra you put into it, and your entire body crumples in on itself from the pressure." A third finger. "Third, releasing a gravity seal with enough Chakra in it will generate enough force to rip your body to shreds if not properly accounted for." A fourth finger. "Fourth, you have to constantly-"

"We get it." Neji interrupted, and Tenten huffed.

"How much weight do you train with, Lee?" I asked.

He blinked. "About five tons on each leg." He answered "What does your gravity seal weigh?"

 **A/N - Woah! I saw that flinch. Explanation of the weight in the 'end of chapter' Author's Note.**

"Sounds about right." I replied. "And I'm not sure. I've been adding to it for about eight years though."

"Eight years?!" Lee exclaimed.

"What do you say about a three on one?" Gai asked, moving the conversation back to the reason why we were here in the first place.

I waved my hand dismissively. "They'd kick my ass as long as I have my gravity seal active."

"Then deactivate it." Neji said, still a little miffed that his own sensei thought I'd kick his ass.

"I only _release_ it when I need to. Training doesn't quantify that need."

"Kicking Taichi-kun's ass sounds fun." Tenten piped up with a smile.

"Three on one it is, then!" Gai said. "Let the fires of YOUTH compel you!"

I sighed, but apparently "Let the fires of YOUTH compel you!" is a phrase that means "Punch Taichi in the face. Like right now." So I had to immediately duck away from Lee.

I reached up and grabbed his arm, then threw him behind me, which gave me enough time to parry a light jab from Neji.

I knew enough of the Gentle Fist to know that blocking it was a horrible idea.

I parried two more jabs before I had to duck under a high sweeping kick from Lee, who followed it up with a low sweep.

I jumped up and away to avoid it, and was met with a volley of shuriken.

This was _fantastic_ teamwork. It was just the first round of blows, and they had already restricted me to hand-to-hand combat by rushing me and not giving me enough time to draw a weapon, then put me in a position where I wouldn't be able to dodge a set of projectiles.

All with no communication at all.

I was impressed.

I made a sweeping motion with my wooden arm, sucking up all of the shuriken, and fired them back at the cute girl who threw them.

"How-" She began, but was cut off by the raining metal.

When I hit the ground, I flipped my perception seal on and flickered behind Neji, aiming a kick at his head, but he blocked with a braced forearm without even turning around.

Stupid Byakugan.

Still, he was sent skidding along the ground; feet leaving a small trench in the dirt. Then I made a clone, having made a little breathing room for myself, and sent it after Tenten.

Now the thing about my clones is that seals don't transfer over, which meant that my gravity seal didn't affect the clones, so they were working at full power… Well full power for a clone, which is about eighty percent of my max.

Still, that meant that the clone was faster and stronger than I was at the moment, though only by a small margin.

Well maybe not _faster_. I could use the body-flicker/Perception seal combination, and the clone couldn't.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lee rush to help Tenten, so I focused my attention on Neji, who was already coming at me.

I parried the first couple palm strikes before grabbing his wrist and yanking him toward me, where I grabbed him by the hair and tried slamming his head into my knee, however before the blow could connect he grabbed _my_ wrist - the one in his hair, flung his legs out behind him and twisted his body, making me turn with him until he had my arm locked behind my back, which he used as leverage to pin me to the ground.

Jokes on him, though.

 _That_ arm was detachable.

I cycled some chakra, and a thick mist billowed off of my body. Managing to get the Hidden Mist Jutsu down to the point where I didn't have to use hand seals could end up being a life-saver, so I was pretty glad I put the time into it. Also, I hated using hand seals at all. I knew the mist wouldn't do anything to hinder Neji and his Byakugan, but it would keep the others from easily coming to his rescue.

When the mist had covered us both, I twisted on the ground, unlocking my arm from its hinge and breaking away from Neji's hold and kicking his legs out from under him in one motion.

While he was in the air, I reached out and grabbed my arm back from his grip and flung out a chakra string to a small lever inside of it.

The elbow joint of the arm locked and the fist curled and clicked into a ball, forming a mace, which I promptly used to smash Neji down into the ground.

The Hyuga managed to twist slightly in the air, minimizing the damage of the blow, but still making a decent dent in the dirt when he hit.

It only took him half a second to get back on his feet, but by then I was able to flip my arm around and twist it back into place.

I felt my clone pop and a memory of getting stabbed in the eye rushed into my head right as Neji charged.

I met him in fisticuffs.

My style of Taijutsu, the Flowing Lotus style, was a damn good counter to the Gentle Fist, as it had no way of blocking an opponent, relying totally on parries. However the Gentle Fist was Konoha's most renowned fighting style for a reason.

He matched me perfectly in straight Taijutsu.

I kept the mist thick, but being this close I could still see Neji clearly. I knew Lee would be joining us in the next couple seconds, but I had to disable ranged support somehow.

The mist was perfect for that.

As if my thoughts were the cue, Lee entered the fray. I sidestepped a downward kick and sent one of my own into His side, sending him sprawling, but that left me open for longer than I wanted it to.

It gave Neji enough time to send a Chakra-powered jab into my left shoulder, then another into my lower abdomen, staggering me.

"Eight Trigrams: Two Palms!" He said

Two more jabs. "Four Palms!"

Four more. "Eight Palms!"

Each jab sent a chain reaction of pain through my system, like a small explosion in my bones and muscles. I couldn't recover in time to stop the chain.

Eight more. "Sixteen Palms!"

The mist started to disperse as my Chakra control wavered.

He only got three more jabs in, though.

Each of my tattoos was tied to a tenketsu. They had to be, otherwise I wouldn't be able to to control them. Disabling the ones that were attached to the Body Enhancement seals would just disable the seals, so those weren't a problem; however, once he hit the one that was tied to my Gravity Seal…

Well he basically triggered a force release of the seal.

An explosion of pure Chakra _ripped_ into the area around me, blasting Neji, Lee, and what remained of the mist outward.

The ground around me was shredded instantly. Dirt was either ripped up and flung, or compacted underneath me, the shockwave even shook into the surrounding trees, and the clouds overhead parted slightly.

Releasing the gravity seal like that was not recommended. I'd never tried it before - _obviously -_ but my mom told me that the blast tended to be a little more violent and uncontrollable.

In short, after a couple seconds, I found myself in the center of a small crater, my left leg and arm broken and bloody, and possibly the host of a minor concussion.

Usually I had full control over the massive Chakra expulsion, so I could redirect it away from my body, but under a forced release, I could do nothing.

I sighed and examined myself.

Nothing too damaging. From the outside it looked like two clean breaks. There wasn't _that_ much blood, just a few shallow cuts worth. My puppet arm was gone, though.

After two years of missions, I had gotten injured plenty of times. Broken bones, stab wounds, etcetera. In fact, most of my injuries came from training accidents. I played with dangerous toys on a regular basis. Most of which would be seen as total overkill for a Genin to carry around. That basically meant that when I got injured, it was always pretty severe. Good thing that medical jutsu existed. I could be rushed to the emergency room, and leave on my own two feet just a couple hours later. I can't say that I'd gotten used to the pain, because it still _hurt like a bitch,_ but I'd gotten decent at gritting my teeth and not crying my eyes out.

Some _semblance_ of dignity was nice to keep.

The only difference between those times and now was that I previously had the chakra control to use a bit of medical ninjutsu to numb the pain. My tenketsu being blocked put a pretty nice damper on that outlet.

"What the _fuck_ was that?!" I heard Tenten say from outside of the crater.

"I… I'm not sure." Neji said, sounding like he was struggling to regain himself. "I was in the middle of the Eight Trigrams, then Taichi exploded."

"Speaking of that," I choked out, a little blood on my lips. "Think you could unblock my tenketsu real quick, Neji?"

"Taichi exploded?" I heard her getting closer. "I've never heard of someon- OH MY GOD! Taichi! Are you OK?"

"Just pea-... peachy." I choked again, staring at the sky. "Neji. Tenketsu."

"Uh… Yeah." he said. "Of course."

As Neji got to work, Tenten fussed.

"Your _arm!_ " She knelt down next to me. "What happened to your arm?!"

I blinked at her. "It's just broken."

"Not _that one!_ The other one!"

Oh right. She didn't know that I had a puppet arm. Neji didn't even blink when I used it against him in the spar. I guess he scanned me with his Byakugan as some point before the fight. Probably thought it was a weakness too.

HA! Showed him! Eat my Arm-Mace, bitch!

"Oh that one. Don't worry, I have a backup at home."

"Wha-" She began, but I cut her off.

"Don't worry about it." I repeated.

She opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it, looking me over again. "We need to get you to the Hospital." She turned around. "Sensei! Lee's fine! That tree took more damage than he did! We need to get Taichi to the hospital _now!"_

* * *

 **A/N**

I did some research into how much Lee's leg weights weigh. There was a post on r/TheyDidTheMath where someone calculated it based off the giant dust cloud created when Lee drops them in his fight with Gara. It came out to be about 4600 kg, or 10,141.26 lbs each. Which equates to 5.07 tons on each leg.

As for Taichi's Gravity seal, one of the first things I said about it was that it took a miniscule amount of chakra to add 20 lbs. So I'm taking that as a single notch. Say he ups the weight once every two days. So that's about 182.5 times a year that he ups the weight. Through about 8 years, that goes to 1460 times. Now take that and multiply it by 20 because that's how much it was upped each time.

You get 29,200 lbs which is about 1.5X what Lee has (5 tons on each leg = 10 tons). 29,200 lbs = about 15 tons, which is spread all across Taichi's body - which would have a greater effect on boosting Taichi's strength as well as speed compared to Lee's method. Ultimately, I'd put it together that Taichi is a good bit faster than Lee.

Now when it comes to damage dealt, say Taichi throws a punch. He's lugging 15 tons of weight around constantly, so I'd imagine that he can punch out with at least 10 tons of that. Think of the damage that Lee's weights did to the floor when he dropped them in his battle with Gara. That's a full powered Taichi-punch.

People take full powered kicks from Lee all the time. Hell, people take punches from _Tsunade_ all the time. Taichi's stronger than Lee, but I can basically assume that the average Chunin can live through that kind of blunt force if only administered a few times. A Jounin would be able to get back up and keep going.

So yeah… No I didn't plan that out, it just worked, so I'm sticking with it.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my ass.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N**

This one was supposed to be longer, but it's taking way too long to get out, so here's what I have so far.

I OWN EVERYTHING!

Except for Naruto.

I don't own Naruto.

* * *

"FUCK THIS CAT!" I yelled, bolting through the trees in Training Ground Thirteen.

Yes, _through_ the trees. Anything in my way was getting cleaved in two via gigantic sword.

"Calm down, Taichi-" Kakashi said over the team-com.

"I'm TWO YEARS past doing this shit!" I continued.

Tora had gotten faster. Much faster.

Probably just to spite me.

"Fuckin' ninja cats, jumping off of trees 'n shit. Imma KILL IT." I could feel my killing intent bubbling off me in waves. The normal kind, not using the seal. I didn't _actually_ want- OK yes, I definitely _wanted_ to kill it, but I knew that if I did, the Hokage would be magnificently displeased with me.

I _did_ try to do the thing where I freeze the creature with intent, but the damn thing took one look at me and ran. Completely heedless of the content of my intent.

The only issue with that, was that my intent was steadily growing throughout the chase.

Which only made the cat run faster.

"GRAAAHHHH!" I roared.

I saw Naruto and Sasuke give each other a worried look out of the corner of my eye. I mean, I guess I had let my temperget the better of me… a little.

This was supposed to be a team exercise to help build us up before the Chunin exam. Niashi-sensei had learned to not take anymore Tora missions after my last one. Too bad that particular memo never made it to Kakashi's desk.

He had just shown up that morning and said we had a mission.

If I remember correctly, my eye twitched.

"No you won't-" Kakashi tried.

"Come'ere you little pickle-fart and let me gouge out your eyes!"

There was a couple seconds of silence as we continued the chase.

"He's lost it." Sasuke said, paying homage to the god of all things bloody fucking obvious.

"Pickle-fart?" Naruto asked.

It was later reported that my screams could be heard throughout the village for the next couple hours.

Ultimately, we had to report the mission as _failed_. Mainly due to the excessive damage I caused in my blind rage; Kakashi called us off when the ANBU thought the village was under attack.

I had… um… evidently… well, there wasn't much left of Training Ground Thirteen, and a couple residencies in District Four took some… significant damage.

Catching the Demon Cat has since been upgraded to a C-rank mission, requiring the _active_ roll of at least one Jounin.

Oh, and I was barred from ever taking the mission again.

I counted that as a victory.

* * *

About a week before the exam found Niashi Fukumi sitting in a tree overlooking a group of Genin, a couple Academy students, and the Hokage's grandson.

Three of the Genin were Suna nin; one was sitting in a tree behind the group - much like herself, and the other two were threatening the wellbeing of Konohamaru.

Well… One of them was.

"Brats should watch where they're going." The Suna nin with face paint said.

The scene continued as Naruto threatened to beat up the foreign nin if he didn't let the kid go.

Niashi began to ready herself to intervene if someone steered the situation out of control.

Then a familiar voice sounded out on the branch next to her. "Now how the hell did this happen? Sakura's still in the hospital."

She looked over to see her student - though she said that loosely now - peering down on the crowd looking confused.

She wasn't even surprised that the kid was able to sneak up on her. His chakra control was to the point where he could suppress his footprint to almost nothing, and the Yamanaka had always been privy to techniques in the stealth field.

"What does Sakura have to do with this?" Niashi asked.

"Hm?" The Genin cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, nothing apparently."

Taichi Yamanaka was a puzzle. The kid was driven to improve by some divine force, all the while acting like a Nara. She had never seen so much skill and drive packed into one person.

Well, she never _did_ see the kid's drive, but knew it _had_ to be there. The sheer amountof shit he got done in the 'Personal Improvement' category was staggering by anyone's standards.

From the very beginning of their relationship, the only things she could teach him were Kenjutsu and Ninjutsu, and those were covered in the first year. Any plans regarding exercise were overruled by his Gravity seal; simply by being too pedestrian to have any effect. Chakra control was… Well it was better than Niashi's at this point for sure, and she suspected that it had always been so. His work ethic seemed to be moot to begin with. Teamwork, and strategy just seemed to be minor facets that he picked up without problem. Hell, she actually had to _try_ in order to beat Taichi in a spar now.

The last time they fought unencumbered, she had left the training ground with just as many bruises as he had. He still wasn't her match, but it was getting to be a close thing.

She just had to face it: there wasn't much else she could teach him.

She thought back to the first time she met Team Three, and gave them her version of the Genin test.

She really didn't want a Genin team, but even though the Hokage had only asked her to take the roll, another… party didn't give her a choice. She had to take this team and see to the development and mindset of one Taichi Yamanaka.

They had immediately picked up on the point of it, and showed her some of the best teamwork she had ever seen from fresh Genin.

Granted that was mainly Taichi and Shiro working off of each other, but Mai had shown a lot of trust and willingness to work with her peers that simply wasn't expected of her, as well as a propensity to ask questions, and fight decisions that she didn't think were appropriate.

Still, Niashi was pleasantly surprised, so she decided to bump up the difficulty.

For Taichi.

She could tell he was still holding back, while the other two were working in top gear. So she used the easiest method available to get him to pick it up.

She backed him into a corner.

By disabling Mai and Shiro in a _visibly_ brutal - but not truly damaging - fashion, and raising her skill level up to about low Chunin, she got him to release his Gravity seal.

She could honestly say that was the most surprised she had ever been.

A Genin was able to immediately match someone at low Chunin level _right out of the Academy._

It was ludicrous.

And then he had tried to pummel her in the face with a Rasengan.

That one didn't even register before the _fear_ kicked in and she slammed the kid into the ground so hard that _she_ felt most of the bones in his body break.

Niashi was around during the Third Shinobi War. She saw what the Fourth Hokage did with that jutsu. She saw how it mangled and grinded a person into a bloody, pulpy mess.

The reason why the Rasengan was such a dangerous jutsu wasn't because it had great blunt force. With how the Fourth used it - if it was just a ball of chakra - it would have served him better to just punch people instead.

No, the Rasengan was _feared_ because it drilled through your defences like they weren't even there, then ripped apart your insides like a hurricane of gears. Whether it was made of Chakra, flesh, metal, or stone, nothing could maintain its integrity when it was being stripped layer by layer at a speed beyond comprehension.

The Rasengan was _feared_ because of the wrath that had been written with it.

The Rasengan was _feared_ because nothing had ever lived, once pitted against it.

The Rasengan was _feared_ because the man who invented it left a trail of mangled corpses longer than any known shinobi to date.

Fuck the fact that she was a clone; that fear had been carved into her _soul._

So it ended with a fresh Genin in the hospital.

Niashi had done her homework before meeting the three of them.

She knew Taichi was the latest genius of Konoha, and frankly, she'd been annoyed at the fact that she was selected to be his sensei.

She expected a brat.

She expected a stuck up idiot who _knew_ he was better than his peers.

She expected a lot, really.

She got none of that.

What she got was a snarky twit that knew his limits, and never stopped improving on his deficits.

What she got was a _team_ of snarky twits that she barely had to teach.

They were already effective from the get-go, they just needed someone to grease the wheels. Mai and Shiro needed a bit of work, but that was expected.

Then their first C-rank happened and everything went to shit.

She tried. She honestly did.

She had gone through emotional… training in the past, but evidently it was wearing off after so long. Sometimes she wished she could be as emotionless as they wanted her to be.

This was her first Genin team. She never had that type of responsibility before, and that spawned a sense of apprehension that was nearly crippling.

So she made the worst decision of her life; leaving her Genin under the care of a clone while she tried to get a grasp of the situation. Really, she should have flipped it; sent the clone out instead. But no. She had to go and be a _complete_ idiot.

Shiro was beheaded.

Mai was reduced to a clinical patient.

Taichi… Well Taichi had taken it remarkably well for a kid his age. He'd lost an arm and two teammates. He seemed to go through the stages of grief in about a week after he woke up, and never relapsed. Acceptance seemed to hit him while he was with Shikamaru after he'd been released from the hospital. Yes, she was watching when he met up with the Nara, and yes; she told the kid where to find Taichi. She wanted to be there for him, but knew that she would be terrible company. Not knowing how to deal with the grief herself, Niashi would be no help.

Since then, she spared no effort in training him - though he still barely needed it. She took him through everything she knew about Kenjutsu, and Ninjutsu theory, letting him create his own: Wind Release: Air Burst.

It surprised her that he focused on making a supplementary jutsu instead of something purely offensive, but that decision only proved to enhance her view of Taichi's ability to plan ahead.

After the first year, she officially cleared him to do easy C-rank missions solo. There had been a little pressure for her to get back on the mission roster, so she either had to bring Taichi with her, get him promoted, or clear him for solo missions. The third option seemed like the safest.

The easy C-ranks traditionally only took a day or two, as they only dealt with courier missions in the immediate vicinity of the village, patrol of the village wall, gate duty, or other menial tasks that were only slightly more dangerous than D-ranks. They didn't pay much, but they stacked up nicely.

That's about when the 'Student/Teacher' thing started to break down.

She began to see less and less of Taichi as the second year progressed. She still took the odd mission with him, just to see how he'd been progressing and possibly teach him some miniscule tips and tricks. He still lacked experience, and that was really all she could help him gain at that point.

Niashi knew she wasn't the strongest ninja in the village. She had sparred with Kakashi, Asuma, Gai, and others, to find that she was definately Elite Jounin, but still only as good as that. Kakashi and Gai could kick her ass, and she won against other Jounin like Kurenai, Asuma, and Yugao a few times, but not enough to put her ahead of the crowd.

At least her Bingo Book entry said she was an A-Rank threat, though the following details explained that it was on the lower end of A-Rank.

It might have been bad or good luck - she didn't know - when Taichi was paired with another Genin team to do a slightly longer C-Rank mission just a little bit after he turned eleven.

They were ambushed just as they were turning the mission scroll over to the client. She wasn't privy to the 'why', but the Iwa nin that attacked immediately went for the Jounin sensei, knocking him out after a short clash and left him for dead, bleeding out on the ground. However, when they turned around to 'Take care of the kiddies', they were caught completely off guard by an enraged eleven-year-old child.

Taichi's problem with Iwa nin would probably never go away, and she wasn't sure she would do anything to fix it. It wasn't like she cared much about the offending party, and as heartless as it was to admit it, Taichi's cold rage was a very productive motivator.

He had lost too much in one mission, and that blame fell on an entire village.

There were three attackers; all at about high Chunin level, but Taichi was pushing Jounin at this point - if only in speed and strength - even while hanging onto his Genin title.

He managed to kill two of them and the "client" before the strongest of the three met him even.

With their Jounin out cold, the two other Genin on the team did the only thing they could and helped out Taichi, which proved to be just enough to overpower the last attacker.

By the time they got the Jounin bandaged up and made it back to the village, it was clear that Taichi had just completed his first B-Rank mission.

His skills began to get noticed at that point, so he found himself on slightly longer, and more difficult missions without his sensei. He was thrown in with more teams, and managed to make that name for himself: The Guillotine.

She didn't even bother to suppress the smirk that jumped to her lips when she first heard the moniker.

It was official, her emotional training was totally shot.

She just hoped that nobody figured it out.

A burst of killing intent from the Sand Genin with a gourd strapped over his shoulder brought Niashi back to reality.

Taichi still sat on the branch next to her, seemingly content with how things were pacing themselves out below him.

Sasuke had shown up at some point, and threw a pebble at the Genin with face paint, prompting Mr. IHaveAHugeFuckingGourdOnMyBack to come out of hiding as well.

The Jounin sighed as the group began to disperse. She would have stepped in if truly necessary, but it didn't seem that it was.

"Well, that was anticlimactic." Taichi said, standing up.

"Mm." She replied, still staring down at the empty street.

"Hey, wanna take a mission tomorrow?"

She looked up at her student, and cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh don't look at me like that."

She continued to look at him like that.

Taichi sighed. "I'm trying to get out of teaching someone fuinjutsu. Help."

Niashi couldn't help it. She chuckled. "Taking on students of your own, are you?"

"Hey! She gave me a sob story! I had no defense to that!"

"She?" The Jounin grinned. She found herself doing that more often in the past year or so; grinning. She kind of liked it.

"Oh don't you dare."

She straight up laughed at his glare.

"Nevermind." Taichi pouted. "I'll just go ask if there's anything short term at the mission desk."

Niashi kept laughing for a few seconds after Taichi flickered away, then brought herself together. She was glad that her student was finally making more friends. He had plenty of acquaintances, but when it came to people his own age, there weren't too many he interacted with. After their first C-rank mission, Taichi grew distant from his extended family. The only contact he regularly kept was with his mother, Ino, and her father. During the monthly Yamanaka Festival, he could be found speaking with a few people here and there, but he never really made an effort to socialize to the Yamanaka standard. Outside of the family, he really only talked to Shikamaru, and even then their conversations tended to be about the clouds that were passing by.

Fuinjutsu, huh?

The Jounin had been thinking about asking him to teach _her_ that, as well.

Niashi Fukumi found herself scratching at her cheek, lost in thought for the umpteenth time that day, thinking about the seal that laid upon the fleshy appendage between her teeth.

* * *

 **A/N**

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.**

Please **do not** shove insults up my ass.

 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N**

Hey guys! I started another fanfic!

Also I appear to have died. Again.

Well I'm back now. Jesus supposedly came back after three days. I'm not that good. Took me a while.

The new story's called "A Key in the Graveyard" and it's a Kingdom Hearts story. It's from the perspective of a Keyblade wielder that fought in the Keyblade War. Not as 'family friendly' as the games are. People die. Very little Disney in the plan so far. Also only one chapter in months, so... follow at your own risk?

Take a gander if it so interests you.

 **I do not plan on stopping this story** , as I still have an ass-ton planned for it. My updates for everything will be sporadic, so it might take a while, but I'm _not_ giving it up. It just takes a while for me to write things (Understatement of the century).

I don't own shit.

This shit in particular.

* * *

"OK, I guess we'll start on something I _know_ you would love to use: my projectile seal." I began.

Unfortunately, there were no available short-term missions at the desk to get myself out of teaching.

Tenten looked giddy.

I cocked an eyebrow. "Don't get too excited. You won't be able to use it, even if gave you a copy of the design right now."

Her eyebrows scrunched together adorably. "Why's that?"

"Well, really it's two seals in one." I pulled a scroll out of my back pouch. "This is the main storage point." I plopped it on the table and opened it up. "I don't usually keep this one on my person, mainly because I tend to take a lot of damage at the dumbest of times, and if this gets destroyed I lose everything." I pointed at the seal on my glove. "This, is just a variable access point for the main storage, and if I lose it, all I have to do is draw another one and I'm good.

"Now, the main storage point can only do one thing: talk with the access point, but the access point has three main functions. The first is the most important: it's the link between the two scrolls and my head, giving me a complete list of the contents of the seal and giving me free reign to choose what I want to come out. I actually had to consult my clan on that one, as it involves some general mind-fuckery. The second is to spit out its contents at one of two velocities; _very_ fast, or not moving at all. The 'very fast' speed makes it so I don't ever have to throw something again, and the 'not moving' one means I can just grab something out of it. To be honest, I never actually learned _how_ to throw weapons. I faked the fuck out of it in the academy." I smiled at the stricken horror that appeared on her face. "The third function was the hardest: a mono-directional singularity that sucks in all physical objects two feet in front of the seal. The 'singularity' part is how it sucks up objects larger than the seal itself. _That_ is how I eat all incoming projectiles, and also how I got my hands on Momo's big-ass butterknife; he threw it at me.

"Ah-ah, not done." I said, cutting off the obvious question on her lips. I could tell she was annoyed at the 'butterknife' part. "I'll explain how to connect two separate seals later, as well as making them multipurpose. The main issue here is that you'll have to understand _exactly_ how both of these work, because it's not as simple as throwing your chakra into it. There are multiple paths in both designs and channeling chakra into the wrong path, or making a wrong turn in the design will… Well it'll be _very_ bad for your health. Get it?"

Tenten leaned a bit closer over the table, lips pursed slightly, and nodded.

"Good. Now immediately going over this is a trial by fire. It's pretty damn advanced, but it uses a lot of concepts and meshes them all together. I'll go over each individual one to give you a better handle on it all, but we'll move pretty fast. Keep up."

Determination shined in her eyes, and I kept going.

I pointed back at the scroll on the table. "This one is a Blood Seal. In other words, the whole thing has to be written in your blood. The access point; however, is only a partial Blood Seal. The star points are the only thing that need to be written in blood. In essence, that's what links the two seals together."

I looked up to see that she'd gone slightly pale, but didn't lose that determined glint. "Blood allows for a higher bandwidth of chakra through the seal, and restricts who can use it. You _could_ write the access point all in blood, but it makes it a bit harder to control. Having that higher bandwidth isn't always a good thing. Now as for the 'restrictive' bit… Here, try to activate the one on the table."

She looked confused. "I thought you said that would be dangerous?"

"It is. Try it anyway."

She blinked at me and opened her mouth to say something, but closed it and frowned, then looked back down at the seal on the table. "Okay…"

Her hand reached over hesitantly and touched the seal, only for nothing to happen.

Her eyes scrunched together, and she touched the seal again.

Nothing.

"The fact that the _whole_ thing is written in my blood basically means that it will only accept my chakra. Now to write a seal in blood in the first place, you have to imbue your blood with chakra and fuseit with the medium. We'll go over that later. Following so far?"

I continued without waiting for a response. "The higher bandwidth of a Blood Seal allows for much more functionality, as well as power and control. You're essentially optimizing the seal to fit you, and only you. Pretty useful stuff.

"Now, at its base, this is just a fancy storage seal, but it requires somewhat advanced knowledge of Uzumaki script which immediately makes it God level." I paused. "Well OK, it's not _that_ ridiculous _."_

"Wait, Uzumaki?" Tenten sat up with curiosity in her eyes. "Like that orange idiot on Kakashi's team?"

I blinked at her, understandably dumbfounded. "You mean to say that you want to be a Fuinjutsu _Master,_ and you _don't know who the Uzumaki are?!"_

She looked back at me expectantly.

"Oh for the love of- Okay, short version: Yes. Much like the orange idiot. He's one of the last of the Uzumaki Clan; a clan _known_ for their sealing expertise. This clan is said to be one of three that are directly descended from the Sage of the Six Paths. Uzumaki, Senju, and Uchiha. Don't give me that look. Yes, the Uchiha are descended from Indra, the Sage's first born son. Uzumaki and Senju come from Asura, the second son."

She blinked. "How do you know all of that? None of that was covered in the academy, and _everyone_ knows the Sage is a myth."

I shrugged. "My mom's an Uzumaki. Been teaching me this crap along with fuinjutsu since I was two. Plus, it doesn't really matter if they were or not, they're ' _said to be'_ descended from the Sage. Sort of an obvious testament to their power, eh?"

She nodded in begrudging acceptance, then jerked her gaze back in my direction. "Wait, what? Since you were _two?!"_

"Well… Two and a half, if you want to be precise."

* * *

The nature transformation for fire was being an absolute asshole for the last few hours. I mean, I know I should probably have been working on of the other elements, as water was my main, making fire out to be as uncooperative as a pregnant, teenage bull who's dad won't let them go out with their friends on a Friday night. Yes, I know bulls are all male and the family life of cattle doesn't make sense to be anthropomorphized in an analogy such as this, but you get the picture.

...Don't you?

You do.

Anyway, fire was difficult for me, but I figured that if I could master my worst element, earth and lightning would come much easier. I had already gotten close to mastery with water and wind through the past few years, and it was about time that I started to fully take on mastering the other elements if I wanted my end goal to be feasible by the time Madara showed up.

I had already gotten my general chakra control to well beyond mastery, being nearly the only thing I had done with my spare time since the age of four. The next step was mastering the elements, which I was a little under half-way through, and should only take another few months or so. That was mainly thanks to my general chakra control mastery and having already worked through two of them completely. Total mastery would take a bit longer than that, but I could feasibly enter the Expert level by then. Third on the list was nature chakra, which I already had a little experience with while using fuinjutsu. That's not to say that I know how to control it at all, because I most definitely can't if I don't have a brush and ink in my hand.

I had a plan on that front though, which should make strides in the coming months, but wasn't guaranteed. Sage Mode in itself would be a boon that I wouldn't be able to turn down. Finally, step four would be mastering the Yin and Yang releases, then combining them. The physical and mental aspects of chakra are part of the foundation for basic chakra control, so just using them would not be difficult, but using them in any meaningful way by themselves would be a challenge. To find somewhere to start, Tsunade and the Nara clan were two of the more prominent figures for Yin Release; Tsunade's Creation Rebirth technique and medical jutsu in general, and the various shadow possession Nara techniques. As for Yang release, the only group that pops into my head is the Akimichi clan. Their body modification jutsus were pretty crazy. To up my Yin chakra capabilities, I would probably just go ham on becoming an awesome med-nin for a while… I made that sound like it would be a walk in the park… HA! Increasing my Yang chakra _would_ be relatively easy in comparison though, as that focuses more on the physical aspect. I would just have to increase what I was adding to my gravity seal and I'd be set.

Then there was the absolute final step: combining it all together.

This was going to take a while, but thanks to my _years_ of constant training in most of this already, the only thing I had to learn from scratch was how to manipulate nature chakra and enter Sage Mode. That one didn't take Naruto very long at all in the show, but he's a fast learner when someone's actually paying attention to him. It only took him a week; I'll give myself a month. Though I gave myself a bit of a head-start, as I knew part of it was staying still and trying to sense the nature chakra. Becoming completely still while meditating was a skill I had developed over the years in anticipation, and sensing the chakra around me wasn't too difficult as I had worked with it before in fuinjutsu, but using it in any way? Fuck no. I need a teacher, or I'd be a statue in five seconds flat.

The elements would take another few months on top of that, and I had a feeling that I needed to master Sage mode before I could master Yin-Yang Release, so the best I could do was get a better feel for my Yin and Yang until I could explore them from within Sage Mode.

So far, it had taken most of this past month's free time, but with the help of my clones I had finally managed to use the fire nature transformation to slowly burn up a leaf. Once I got the leaf to burn for about a half hour, I started to try the next step. It had been about three days into said step: igniting the air between my palms, or basically creating a small fireball the size of a candle flame from nothing, and I was making some decent progress despite the element of fire being a total asshole.

That is, I _was_ making progress until I heard something whistling in the air flying towards my general direction.

A kunai with a sizzling explosive tag landed in the center of my clones and I. I released my clones and backflipped away from the tag but not before it exploded. The explosion itself wasn't nearly as big as a normal explosive tag, meaning I was safe, but when I saw who was attacking me, I could guess the reason was so that he wouldn't draw too much attention.

"Iwa." I growled. I don't think I'm capable of seeing anything but red at the sight of an Iwa hitai-ate. Not since Shiro died, and every time I go and visit Mai, that anger just consumes me until the regret hits, but here? An Iwa-nin in front of me, having already thrown the first, figurative, punch, and nobody to hold me back?

Oh boy.

"Konoha." He growled back almost as vehemently, though there was a flash of confusion at the sheer _radiance_ of hate emanating from my face.

I picked myself up slowly, eyes never leaving my new target. "So what brings you to our little neck of the woods?" My lips didn't even quiver at the Konoha pun.

"You." He said simply, before getting into a ready stance.

I laughed. "Oh good. I suppose this has something to do with me killing that kid a couple years ago when you guys ambushed my team, right? What was his name? Yaku? Yasu? Yasuo? Yeah! That's it! Yasuo."

Another flicker of confusion, and was that… fear? Oh, I'm putting out killing intent. Gotta be careful about that while in the village. At least I didn't activate the Intent booster seal.

"No?" I asked, not truly caring why. There were plenty of reasons why an enemy nin would attack a 'Konoha prodigy' and I had already dealt with a couple. They were probably just trying to knock me out of the running for the Chunin exams. Let's ask.

"Is this about the Chunin exams then?"

A twitch of the muscles on his face told me that, yes, it indeed was.

"Ah, well. Sorry to disappoint. You can die now." I suppose I should have thought a bit harder about it. I mean killing one of our guests for the Chunin Exams, even provoked as it was, could mean war, but I wasn't thinking about that.

The Iwa-nin had no idea what happened as I turned on my perception seal and body-flickered in front of him. My one real hand was already flying through the half-seals of a fire jutsu before I flickered, and let me tell you; combining a jutsu of your opposite element witha body flicker is fucking _hard._ Niashi-sensei wanted me to learn this particular jutsu now that I was trying to get the fire element down, and I was _almost_ able to do it without hand seals. It became much easier now that I could do the first exercise of the fire nature transformation.

But the Iwa nin didn't care about any of that. Instead he was more preoccupied with the _napalm_ that had just been spit in his face... At least that's what I _hope_ he was worried about, as he was currently on fire and screaming. It would be pretty weird to be worried about something else when you're on fire.

I smiled when I realized that even his _mother_ wouldn't recognize the corpse after the fire consumed him.

Was this the 'Will of Fire' that the Third kept talking about? I liked it.

I would think back on it much later, but didn't care enough to notice it just then. As soon as the spitfire landed on the man, there was a 'poof' of a simple jutsu ending; masked by the flames as it was.

* * *

Once the Academy was out, Iruka often found himself helping the Hokage work through mountains of paperwork, as he was one of the few shinobi in the village that didn't mind sitting still for a while. He also often found himself kicked out to the waiting room while his village leader had important visitors, however when it came to mission reports, he was usually allowed to stay.

Iruka watched as one of the most promising young Genin in years left the Hokage's office, having just given a… _disturbing_ report. Usually reports would be sent along channels from one of the Chunin at the desks a few stories down, but this one regarded a possible security risk and attack on one of their own during the lead up to the Chunin exams.

"What are the chances, Iruka, that this 'Iwa-nin' was one of the Chunin we sent out to test the rookie teams?" The Hokage asked, already seeming to know the answer.

Iruka looked down at the body-scroll on the Hokage's desk, a frown on his lips and looking a little green. He was now glad that he was too busy to test the teams himself, or he might have been the one taking up residence in that body scroll. "Pretty high, sir. The time frame Taichi gave us fits the mission Kotamaru was given."

The Third just sighed sadly, nodded, and slumped back into his chair. "I'm honestly glad the Iwa contingent hasn't arrived yet or I would be fearing a war on our doorstep. When they get here, we need to steer them and Taichi away from each other. I'll dispatch a note telling him to keep clear, saying something like trying to 'minimize repercussions' or something. I can't say I blame the boy under the circumstances, but this cannot happen again. Taichi should not have been tested along with the others; having been active for the last two years gives him much more credibility than the other Genin. I'm not sure where the communication failed, but that needs to be remedied." The Hokage paused for a second, then continued. "To avoid anything like this in the future, the testing of rookie teams will be left to their senseis, and observed by a hidden, unbiased Chunin."

Iruka nodded, jotting all the info down on a notepad.

"Bear." The Hokage said, and an Anbu appeared in the middle of the room kneeling. The Third held out the body scroll and envelope to the Anbu. "Take this to Ibiki to have the body examined and cross-check it with the mission roster. If he's one of ours, inform his next of kin and deliver payment for the assigned mission." Even though he said 'if', he was one hundred percent sure at this point. The Chunin, Kotamaru, was two hours overdue for his report.

The Anbu nodded, took both objects, and flashed out of the room in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

Ino was not the most mature twelve-year-old on the planet. She knew that. She was hot-headed and yelled a lot - a fact that her cousin never hesitated to get mad at her for - and she threw herself at the 'most self-absorbed dickbag in the village' constantly. Her cousin's words. _She,_ of course, thought Sasuke was _dreamy._ Granted, her infatuation with the Uchiha had started to teeter out as soon as she left the Academy. It wasn't for lack of desire, but more that her time and priorities started to shift as she started to take on the life of a career shinobi.

Now that's not to say her focus _completely_ shifted either. Every time she ran into her earliest true friend-and-now-rival, Sakura, that hot-headed side of hers would come out to play. She would get competitive and spout out stuff like, "He's mine, Billboard-brow!" and, "Being on his team is a pretty good handicap!" For Ino, Sasuke was now less of a crush, and more an object to fight over with Sakura.

Again, she _knew_ this. Her clan training taught more psychology than technique. She could analize nearly anyone. Herself included, and it annoyed her that she could see it all logically, but when push came to shove, all that logic fell away.

Every time she saw Sakura, they would fight and call eachother names. Ino knew that fighting over Sasuke wasn't worth it in the slightest, but they were both stubborn. Too stubborn to stop fighting and realize just how petty their rivalry had become. However Ino _did_ realize. She had realized a long time ago, but couldn't bring herself to go up to her once best friend and say, 'I don't care about Sasuke anymore. I just want to be friends again.'

She was too proud, and it was killing her.

She once had a close friend as a kid. It was her cousin, Taichi. He had always seemed so aloof and calm. Like none of the worlds problems mattered. But then, they were tiny children; their problems _didn't_ matter. She grew up listening to his playful banter with Shiro and all the adults. He was always so mature, but would always play with her and never brushed her off. Sure, he would complain, and was lazy like Shikamaru, but it wouldn't ever take much to get him active and going, and once up, he was more fun to be around than most. They would play 'ninja' for hours at a time, and _he_ was the one who would groan when finally called for dinner, always wanting an extra few minutes to play… Though that might have had something to do with the fact that Aunt Tomo always cooked curry for dinner, he would still push to play a bit more with his 'favorite cousin', and she loved him for it.

That easy friendship died when he came home after a mission one day when they were ten. He had been gone for much longer than he said. It was only supposed to take a day or two at most. He had been gone for nearly a week, and when he finally returned, had spent _another_ week in intensive care at the hospital in a medically induced coma.

She was terrified for her cousin, and when she found out, she bolted to the hospital only to find him still in surgery. There was no immediate threat to his life, but there was a lot to fix, apparently. She waited for hours outside of the operating room, and only allowed herself to be dragged home once she saw him alive and breathing.

After he woke up though, she visited him everyday, and everyday her heart broke a little bit more. Sure, he still acted the same as he normally did, but she could see it in his eyes. Something had broken in him, and her fun-loving cousin might as well have been dead, replaced by a burning sentinel that would watch over everyone he loved until the day his body passed and was laid to rest beside his soul that he buried when he was ten years old.

Perhaps he could be brought back in time, with the right person saying the right things, but she couldn't help him. She didn't know how, and that thought hurt more than she could imagine.

So when about a month ago, she saw Naruto, Sasuke, and their sensei leaving the hospital with bleak expressions, after coming back from a mission that took nearly twice the allotted time, she panicked.

" _Where's Sakura?"_ She had asked. Nearly screamed.

 _Naruto looked stricken for a second. "Uh… Hi Ino-."_

" _Sakura! Is she okay?"_

" _Yes! Um no, I mean - Agh!" Naruto fumbled with his words and Ino grabbed him by the collar, desperate for a straight answer._

 _Hands pried her own off of Naruto's jacket gently, "Mah, Mah." The white-haired Jounin began. "She'll be okay in the end. If you want to see her, she's in room 207."_

 _She bolted away from the trio, flying through the hospital hallways and getting yelled at along the way, until she found the mentioned room and burst through the door."_

" _...I-Ino?" Sakura hesitantly said, staring in confusion at the panting blond._

 _Ino just took a few seconds to scan her friend. Friend, because that's what she was. If the injury was any testament to the dangers of their chosen career path, a petty rivalry was_ not _worth spending any spare thought. She wanted her friend back._

" _Are you okay?" Ino asked, scanning the pinkette from top to bottom. "I saw your team leaving the building without you and-" Her voice died when her eyes fell on empty space typically reserved for a leg._

 _Sakura's own eyes fell down to the missing limb. "Yeah." She said quietly. Slowly. "I guess you win now, huh? Go ahead and gloat. Sasuke's not going to want anything to do wit-" She was cut off by a slap to the face._

" _You're alive." Ino said around the lump in her throat and the brimming tears in her eyes. "You're alive and that's all that matters._ Fuck _Sasuke. I don't care, I'm done fighting over him with you. Just please- just… just…" Ino couldn't take it. She wrapped her arms around a completely stunned Sakura and cried._

 _And there she stayed for nearly ten minutes, Sakura still confused, though now rubbing Ino's back in small, slow circles, just let her cry._

 _Finally, Ino took a deep breath and sat up next to Sakura in the hospital bed, though didn't fully unwrap her arms from the embrace. "I'm sorry. You're the one with the-" She swallowed. "You're the one in the hospital, and here I am, crying like a baby in your lap."_

" _...I'm not sure you can call it a 'lap' anymore. There's not much of it left." The attempt at humor only made Ino tear up more, though. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Don't cry! I was trying to be funny!" She quickly got out, eyes wide and waving her hands in a placating manner._

 _That though, made Ino chuckle. It was a part of her friend that she hadn't seen in years._

" _I'm so glad you're okay." She said, and squeezed Sakura into another awkward bed-hug._

After that whole debacle, the two girls clicked for the first time since their early Academy days. Sakura was in the hospital for nearly three weeks, which confused Ino. She couldn't really figure out why they were keeping her, but Sakura didn't seem to care much. She just spent her free time gossiping with Ino, reading a book that she said she received from Ino's cousin, or playing with a little marionette that came from the same person. That's how the conversation about the Wave mission came up. Ino was interested to know that Taichi had been with them on the mission, and that he had beat the shinobi that took Sakura's leg. She didn't ask for details, but Sakura told her how he had helped her after the fight, and talked her through the concept of a puppet limb.

Ino was ecstatic that Sakura was taking this in stride, that she would be up and about in the coming months as if nothing ever happened.

But something _did_ happen, and she was just glad she had her friend back.

* * *

 **A/N**

Welp, no promises when the next one's coming out. I just had time and incling today to sit down and finish a chapter. Not giving up on it by any means. Just gonna take a while.

I hope my writing has gotten better. I've been practicing a bit with a couple other story ideas, and I think I'm getting a little better hold on this whole thing. I want to go back and edit all my early chapters to fit my progress, but that's ridiculously time-consuming. Well, I'll get to it eventually. Probably.

Please let me know if there's something I can do to improve; which is also known as **Constructive Criticism.  
** Please **do not** shove insults up my ass.  
 **Please review!** Even if it's just a word or two, I'd like to know what you all think.


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